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Field guide · Nerode Labs
Use these twelve questions to make a client’s AI request concrete. This is a discussion aid, not a readiness score or permission to deploy.
Print this checklist or copy its questions into your approved engagement workspace. Record the evidence you have discussed and any unknowns; this page does not collect your answers.
□ Can the client name one workflow and the business problem it creates?
□ Is there a baseline for time, volume, errors, or service quality?
□ Do you know which AI tools staff already use?
□ Is there an approved tool list with reviewed processing terms?
□ Are the proposed sources accurate, current, and appropriate for this use?
□ Are access permissions and data-sharing boundaries understood?
□ Is there a business sponsor who can make and own the decision?
□ Are permitted uses and prohibited actions written down?
□ Will a named person review outputs before consequential use?
□ Are success criteria, stop conditions, and a manual fallback defined?
□ Can the team make time for training, review, and support?
□ Is there a scheduled decision to retain, change, or stop the pilot?
A clear objective with unresolved prerequisites: prepare first. Document what must be established, who owns it, and what evidence will resolve it.
A bounded workflow with approved controls: consider planning a pilot, subject to the full assessment and explicit authorization.
Unclear value or unacceptable risk: defer. A simpler process improvement may be the better answer.
Do not turn the number of checked boxes into a go/no-go score. The importance of a missing answer depends on the workflow and consequences.
Prepared by Nerode Labs · Updated September 29, 2026. Informed by
NIST AI RMF
and the
Nerode assessment method
.
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