Decision Inventory: Where AI Actually Creates Value
AI success? It’s not the tech; it’s you and the decision you make.
Most AI strategies start in the wrong place. They start with tools. Or vendors. Or a list of use cases someone found online.
The companies actually seeing ROI start somewhere else entirely: Decisions.
Here’s what we found developing the AI Leadership and Transformation Course at the Booth School of Business: AI doesn’t create value in tasks. It creates value in how decisions are made, scaled, and executed across workflows.
If you can’t point to the decisions that drive your economics, you don’t have an AI strategy yet. You have activity.
Step 1: Identify the workflows that matter
Start with the parts of your business where work actually moves:
Sales cycles
Pricing and underwriting
Operations and fulfillment
Customer service and retention
You’re not looking for everything. You’re looking for where performance matters most—where delays, inconsistency, or judgment bottlenecks show up.
Step 2: Map the decisions inside those workflows
Within each workflow, isolate the moments where something gets decided:
Approve or reject
Escalate or resolve
Price high or low
Route, prioritize, or delay
These are your leverage points.
In most organizations, there are 10–20 meaningful decisions per function. Only a handful actually drive outcomes.
Step 3: Score for value
Now apply discipline.
For each decision, assess:
Impact: Does this decision meaningfully affect revenue, cost, or risk?
Frequency: How often does it occur?
Judgment load: Does it require human interpretation, or is it inconsistent today?
High-impact, high-frequency, high-friction decisions are where AI creates disproportionate value.
Everything else is noise.
What this produces
A focused inventory of 3–5 decisions that actually matter.
Not a long list of ideas.
A shortlist you can act on.
From here, AI becomes practical:
Where to apply GenAI vs. automation
Where workflows break down
Where governance and oversight are required
What to do next
If you’ve made it this far, it’s because you need to accelerate growth with AI.
We run a 30-minute session to identify your top decision bottlenecks and where AI can drive immediate impact.
Because the goal isn’t more AI.
It’s better decisions—at scale.
