Skip to main content
Loading...
content

Propose an AI Use Case

This one-page AI use-case proposal shows how to define a problem, set test boundaries, compare options, document data risks and agree success measures before a prototype begins.

Every employee gets a seat — priced per employee in Communications & Intranet, quoted with this template ready.

Rolled out to every employee at AutoZone (125,000), PetSmart (50,000+), A.S. Watson and Raley's (20,000) — and at larger retailers we are not permitted to name.

Built for: Information technology and IT services · Business process outsourcing · Healthcare administration · Financial services operations

Overview

Propose an AI Use Case is a one-page, fictional worked example for employees preparing an AI idea for review and for governance reviewers assessing its scope. Harbor & Pine Group’s shared-services team proposes a four-week test: an AI tool suggests categories and draft routing notes for copied historical internal IT requests, while coordinators verify every suggestion in a separate workspace. The example makes clear that no test result changes a live queue, replies to employees or sets priorities.

The page takes a proposal from operational problem and baseline through intended users, boundaries, alternative options, data and risks, a dated decision record, and success criteria. It shows how to separate an illustrative operational context from an offline accuracy baseline, compare manual-only and AI-assisted review on comparable samples, and report sample size and request mix. It also distinguishes suggestion acceptance from final decision accuracy and identifies the owner, data approval and review conditions needed before testing.

Use this template when an idea needs a bounded prototype proposal that reviewers can assess before work begins. Replace the fictional details with verified local facts, identify the real data owner and approval route, and agree measures and exclusions in advance. Do not use it as permission to process live requests, an automated routing specification, a completed privacy or security assessment, or evidence that a tool is accurate. Any change to live use, data scope, users or decision-making needs fresh review under your organization’s process.

Standards & compliance context

  • Treat the sample’s masking, restricted access and deletion plan as proposed safeguards that require confirmation by the organization’s data, privacy and security reviewers.
  • Do not interpret this worked example or its dated decision record as legal advice, a regulatory assessment or approval to process personal or confidential information.
  • The human-check boundary is part of the fictional test design; verify that actual users can review outputs and that no output is sent to a live process.
  • Make the page accessible to its intended audience by using clear heading structure, descriptive table headers, readable text and meaningful alternative text for the hero image.

General regulatory context for orientation only — verify current requirements with counsel or the relevant agency before relying on this template for compliance.

What's inside this template

Propose an AI experiment reviewers can assess

Start with the purpose of the page and the people who will propose or review a bounded AI test.

  • For employees with an AI idea and the governance reviewers who weigh it. Fictional example: at Harbor & Pine Group, a shared-services team proposes a small, human-checked test. Follow it to see what a clear proposal says about the problem, the users, the data, the risks and the measures of success.

The example in brief

This summary makes the fictional test’s duration, work setting, human check and no-live-use boundary clear at a glance.

  • The team proposes a four-week test in which an AI tool suggests a category and a draft routing note for copied, historical internal IT requests. A coordinator checks every suggestion in a separate test workspace. No test decision enters the live queue. The decision to assess this limited prototype was recorded on 10 October 2026.

Problem and baseline

A stated operational problem and a comparable offline baseline let reviewers judge what the proposed test can and cannot demonstrate.

  • Say what is slow today, and how you know Shared-services coordinators read each incoming internal IT request and choose a category and a resource group. In this fictional example, that is about 120 routine requests a week , such as access resets, software installs and peripheral orders. Operational context (illustrative figures) Review takes about 4 minutes per request, or roughly 8 coordinator-hours a week. About 1 in 10 requests is re-categorized after first routing. This describes the operational problem; it is not the accuracy baseline for the offline test. A comparable offline baseline Before testing, the work owner establishes reviewed reference categories for an approved historical sample. Compare manual-only and AI-assisted review on comparable sample groups using the same timing method and reference categories. Record the group sizes and request mix so the result can be interpreted. The narrow question is whether suggestions reduce review effort while preserving the accuracy of the coordinator’s final test decision. Downstream re-categorization in live work would require a separate approved live evaluation; this offline test cannot measure it.

Intended users and boundaries

These details identify who interacts with suggestions, what the tool may propose and which decisions remain outside its scope.

  • A proposal should name who uses the tool and what stays with people Who uses it Four shared-services coordinators take part. They already review these requests and can tell a good suggestion from a poor one. Test users see suggestions inside a separate test workspace, not in the live queue. Each coordinator records whether they accepted, changed or rejected every suggestion. What it suggests For each routine request in the test sample, the tool proposes a category and a one-line draft routing note. The coordinator verifies both the category and the note. No test output is sent to employees or routed into the live queue. What stays with people The tool does not reply to employees, close requests or change priorities. Urgent, sensitive or ambiguous requests are excluded from the sample and handled as they are today. Any request a coordinator is unsure about goes to the usual escalation route, with no AI suggestion attached.

Options compared

The table makes trade-offs among a human-checked prototype, a rules-only update and automated routing easier to assess.

  • Illustrative judgments for this fictional example, not measured results. The chosen option is in the first option column. Criterion Human-checked suggestions Rules-only update Automated routing Effort to try Small test on copied sample requests Moderate: keyword rules rewritten by hand High: connects to the live queue Who decides routing A coordinator, every time A coordinator for exceptions The system, reviewed afterwards Unusual wording Suggestion may miss it; coordinator catches it Missed unless a rule exists Can be misrouted without anyone noticing Reversibility Stop the test; nothing to unwind Restore the previous rule list Hard to undo once requests are routed Main risk Coordinators over-trust suggestions Rules go stale Wrong routing reaches employees

Data and risks

This section explains which sample is proposed, how it is protected and what risks the test design is intended to limit.

  • Reviewers need the data scope and what could go wrong Data scope A sample of about 300 closed, routine requests from the previous quarter, chosen by the data owner for the request system. Names, attachments and free-text fields that could hold personal or confidential details are removed or masked before use. Access is limited to the four test coordinators and the proposing team lead, and the copied sample is deleted when the test ends. The test begins only after the data owner approves this scope in writing. Risks and how the test limits them Sensitive content exposure: a masked sample and a restricted workspace, with no live requests. Incorrect categorization: every suggestion is checked by a coordinator. AI edits and final test-decision errors are recorded separately against the reviewed reference categories. Uneven performance: results are broken down by request type and by short, vague or non-standard wording, so weak spots are visible and not averaged away. Drift toward live use: testing stays away from live decisions. Any move to the live queue needs a new proposal.

Decision record

A dated record preserves the decision, rationale, owner, review requirements and conditions that trigger reconsideration.

  • A short record that lets a reviewer see what was decided, when, why and by whom Item Entry Decision date 10 October 2026 Decision Assess a limited, human-checked prototype before any live use. Options considered Human-checked suggestions, a rules-only update, and automated routing (see the comparison above). Rationale The prototype can stop without unwinding live automated routing, and a named person remains accountable for every test decision. Its effort and cost are still recorded. Any live use needs a separate reviewed proposal. Responsible owner The proposing shared-services team lead, who owns the test plan and reports the results. Review before testing AI governance review of the data scope, boundaries and success criteria, and data owner approval of the sample. Revisit when The test sample has been reviewed, or if the scope, data or users change.

Success criteria and readiness

Pre-agreed measures and readiness checks help reviewers distinguish a testable proposal from one that is ready to proceed.

  • Agree the measures before the test, not after Measures to compare Review time per request for manual-only and AI-assisted reviews, measured the same way on comparable approved historical sample groups Final coordinator-selected categories against the same reviewed reference categories in both groups, with sample sizes and request mix reported AI suggestions accepted, changed or rejected as a separate diagnostic—not a substitute for final-decision accuracy Results by request type and by vague or non-standard wording Every excluded or escalated case, with the reason it was excluded; no claim about live downstream re-categorization Boundaries that must hold A coordinator checks every suggestion before any routing decision No live requests, employee replies or priority changes Sample data stays masked, access-controlled and deleted at the end of the test Ready for assessment when The problem and baseline are stated with how they were measured Intended users and exclusions are named The data scope has a named data owner Success measures and the test sample size are agreed An accountable owner is named

How to use this template

  1. Replace Harbor & Pine Group’s fictional process and workload with verified information about the task, who performs it and how the current baseline is measured.
  2. Name the proposing owner, test users, data owner and governance reviewers, then define the test workspace, exclusions, escalation route and conditions that would stop the test.
  3. Describe the approved sample and its handling, including what fields are removed or masked, who can access it, when it is deleted and whose written approval is required before use.
  4. Compare the proposed approach with practical alternatives and agree comparable sample groups, reviewed reference categories, timing methods and success measures before testing.
  5. Record the decision date, options, rationale, accountable owner and review trigger, then obtain the required approvals before starting the limited test.
  6. During and after the test, record each coordinator’s accepted, changed or rejected suggestions separately from final decisions, review results by request type and wording, and escalate any proposed scope change for a new review.

Best practices

  • Label fictional or illustrative figures clearly and replace them with verified baseline data before reviewers make a decision.
  • Keep operational re-categorization rates separate from offline accuracy results unless an approved live evaluation actually measures downstream outcomes.
  • Use the same reviewed reference categories and timing method for manual-only and AI-assisted sample groups, and report each group’s size and request mix.
  • Record accepted, changed and rejected suggestions as diagnostic measures rather than treating acceptance as proof of correctness.
  • Exclude urgent, sensitive or ambiguous requests from the sample when the proposal says they remain on the existing handling route.
  • Write down the data owner’s approval, access limits and deletion point before copying historical records into a test workspace.
  • Require a coordinator to verify every suggestion and route uncertainty through the existing escalation path without attaching an AI suggestion.
  • Reopen the decision record if the users, data, sample scope or intended live use changes.

What this template typically catches

Issues teams running this template most often surface in practice:

The current workload is described, but the proposal does not explain how the baseline was measured.
An operational re-categorization figure is incorrectly presented as the AI test’s accuracy baseline.
Manual-only and AI-assisted results use different sample mixes, timing methods or reference categories.
The proposal counts accepted suggestions as correct without checking final decisions against reviewed references.
Names, attachments or free-text fields remain in a copied sample that was supposed to be masked.
The data owner, written sample approval, access list or deletion point is missing.
Urgent or ambiguous requests have no clear exclusion or escalation route.
A limited offline test is described as if it authorizes live routing, employee replies or priority changes.

Common use cases

Shared-services IT coordinator
A team lead uses the example to propose AI category and routing-note suggestions for copied historical requests, while keeping coordinators responsible for every test decision. The comparison and measures help distinguish reduced review effort from the separate question of final decision accuracy.
AI governance reviewer
A reviewer checks whether a proposal states its intended users, exclusions, data handling, alternatives and decision owner before a prototype is assessed. The decision record also makes the review trigger visible if the sample or intended use changes.
Request-system data owner
A data owner uses the data-and-risks section to assess the proposed historical sample, masking, restricted access and deletion plan. The example makes written sample approval a prerequisite rather than assuming access is already authorized.
Operations improvement lead
An operations lead adapts the options table to compare a human-checked AI prototype with a rules-only update and a more automated approach. This makes reversibility, human responsibility and risk visible alongside the effort required to try each option.

Frequently asked questions

What kind of AI proposal does this template cover?

The example covers a limited, human-checked test of AI suggestions for categorizing copied historical internal IT requests. It shows how to state the problem and baseline, identify users and exclusions, compare alternatives, define data safeguards, record a decision and agree measures. Adapt the structure to another use case, but replace the sample facts and reassess its risks.

Does the example authorize using AI on live requests?

No. Its decision record supports assessing a limited prototype before any live use. The test uses copied historical requests in a separate workspace, and no output reaches employees or the live queue. A move to live decisions requires a new proposal and the relevant reviews.

Who owns and reviews the proposed test?

In the fictional example, the proposing shared-services team lead owns the test plan and reports results. AI governance reviews the data scope, boundaries and success criteria before testing, while the request-system data owner approves the sample in writing. Name the actual accountable roles and approval route in your version.

How often should results or the decision be revisited?

The example sets a four-week test and says to revisit the decision when the sample has been reviewed or if the scope, data or users change. It does not prescribe a standing review cadence after the test. Set any additional checkpoints with the accountable owner and reviewers.

What regulatory or compliance approval does this template provide?

The template is a proposal aid, not a compliance determination or legal approval. Its masked sample, restricted workspace, human review and deletion plan are example safeguards, not a substitute for your organization’s privacy, security, records and AI governance requirements. Confirm applicable obligations with the responsible reviewers before using data or starting a test.

What is the most common mistake when filling this out?

A frequent pitfall is treating an operational problem figure as proof of AI accuracy. The example explicitly separates downstream live re-categorization from offline test accuracy and calls for reviewed reference categories on comparable sample groups. Keep those measures distinct, report sample sizes and request mix, and do not claim the test measures live outcomes.

What should I customize in the proposal?

Replace the fictional organization and process details with verified facts, then specify the real owner, user group, sample source, exclusions, approvals and stop conditions. Set success measures before the test and define how results will be recorded and reported. Keep the decision record dated and update it when scope or data changes.

Does this template connect to an AI tool or request system?

No connected tool, request queue or approval workflow is included in the page. It is a static worked example that helps people describe a proposed test and its setup needs. Any required system access, test workspace or data handling process must be arranged through your organization’s existing channels.

How is this different from an ad-hoc AI idea discussion?

An informal discussion can leave reviewers guessing about the baseline, data, boundaries, alternatives or who is accountable. This page puts those items into a single proposal, with a comparison table and a dated decision record. It also separates readiness checks from success measures so a promising idea is not mistaken for an approved test.

Go deeper on the topic

Related concepts
  • AI governance is the framework a company uses to decide what AI tools are allowed to do, who's accountable for their outputs, what data they're allowed to...
  • A modern intranet is a specific surface — typically the home-base destination where employees get company news, find policies, and access key apps. A digital...

Ready to use this template?

Every employee gets a seat. Request pricing for Communications & Intranet and we quote into a workspace with Propose an AI Use Case ready.

Request pricing

Rolled out to every employee at AutoZone (125,000), PetSmart (50,000+), A.S. Watson and Raley's (20,000) — and at larger retailers we are not permitted to name.