Don’t Launch That AI Project (Until You’ve Answered These 5 Questions)

By Christoph Burkhardt

AI Strategy Advisor | Founder, AI Impact Institute

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Clarity first. Then technology.

AI is moving fast—and that speed is seductive. It creates urgency. It generates energy. It invites action.

But in many leadership teams I work with, the pattern looks the same: An AI pilot gets greenlit before anyone stops to ask why this, why now, and why us.

The problem isn’t motivation. It’s direction. And direction only comes from one thing: clarity.

Before any AI project kicks off—no matter how small, no matter how promising—there are five questions that demand honest answers.

They’re not technical questions. They’re strategic ones. And they’ll tell you whether you’re launching a pilot—or building something that actually moves the business forward.

1. What’s the outcome we actually want?

Not the feature. Not the tool. Not the “wow” moment in a demo.

The result. What will look, feel, or perform differently in the business 90 days after this project goes live?

If we can’t describe the impact clearly and in business terms—cost saved, time reclaimed, revenue generated—we’re not ready to build. We’re still guessing.

2. What’s the cost of doing nothing?

This is the urgency test.

If we wait three months, do we lose market share? Will a key process break? Do we miss a time-sensitive opportunity?

Or... does nothing happen?

If the answer is “not much,” that doesn’t mean the project is bad. It just means it’s not urgent. And in an AI-saturated world, urgency is one of the best filters we have.

3. Why now?

There are always good ideas. But not every good idea is right now.

Has something shifted in the market, our team, or our customers that makes this the right moment to invest?

Timing isn’t a soft skill. It’s a strategy. And launching a solid project at the wrong time often leads to failure—not because it wasn’t viable, but because the context wasn’t ready.

4. Who owns the outcome?

Ownership is more than project management. It’s accountability for business results.

Every successful AI initiative I’ve seen had a champion—a person responsible not just for the tech going live, but for what happens after it goes live.

If ownership is unclear, momentum will stall. And the project will fade into “innovation theatre” instead of creating real value.

5. How will we know it’s working?

This is about focus.

If we don’t define success up front—if we don’t name the metrics, assign someone to track them, and commit to reviewing progress—we’ll never know what success even looks like.

We’ll stay busy. We’ll stay active. But we won’t move the needle.

What happens if one of these is missing?

Simple: we pause.

We don’t push forward. We step back. We refine the use case. We reframe the opportunity. We reassign ownership if we have to.

Because speed isn’t the goal. Strategic progress is.

Bottom line: Launch with purpose, not pressure.

In today’s AI landscape, the temptation is to move fast and figure it out later. But clarity beats speed. Every time.

When we answer these five questions, we don’t just de-risk our projects—we maximize their potential to make a measurable, meaningful difference.

And that’s the point of AI in business. Not to be impressive. But to be impactful.