AI Initiative Assessment
Before you fund the next AI idea, test the business case.
A short, fixed-scope gate that helps leadership decide which AI initiatives are worth a pilot — and what they must prove before scaling.
Ideas are not the problem. Deciding is.
Most organizations already have more AI ideas than they can reasonably fund.
The harder questions are:
- Is the idea feasible?
- Is the data usable?
- What infrastructure is missing?
- Who owns it after launch?
- What will it actually cost?
- What should the pilot prove?
The Gate forces those questions to be answered before significant investment begins.
How the Gate works
Intake
Problem, users, data, integration, risk, ownership.
Feasibility & infrastructure
Can the current systems, data, security, and people support the initiative?
ROI & pilot criteria
What is the realistic value, cost, payback, and what must a pilot prove?
Every initiative receives one recommendation: Go · Conditional · No-Go
How to engage
01 — Start
AI Initiative Gate Workshop
$1,500 fixed
Half-day working session using your existing AI idea list.
Includes:
- Initial ranking
- Hard stops
- Evidence gaps
- Recommendation on which ideas deserve deeper assessment
Workshop fee credited in full toward a Full Gate Assessment if you proceed within 30 days.
02 — Decide
Full Gate Assessment
From $7,500
Includes up to 3 initiatives.
Feasibility, infrastructure readiness, ownership, risk, ROI, pilot criteria, and recommendation.
Additional initiatives: +$2,000 each
Final scope confirmed after the workshop.
03 — Prove
Independent Pilot Evaluation
From $1,500/week
Independent measurement of the pilot against agreed baseline and scale/stop criteria.
What you receive
- Ranked idea list
- A clear order for deciding what to pursue next.
- Scorecard per idea
- A consistent record of the evidence behind each decision.
- Infrastructure + readiness gaps
- Dependencies and estimated effort to close them.
- Editable ROI model
- A working model using your own assumptions and baseline.
- Pilot exit criteria + leadership recommendation
- A concise decision brief with thresholds for scaling or stopping.
Worked example: invoice extraction
Illustrative example only.
| Check | Finding | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Intake | Clear problem and baseline; no operating owner or budget. | Fail — hard stop |
| Infrastructure | APIs available; sensitive data must stay in the environment and monitoring is missing. | Upgrade needed |
| ROI | Review effort, adoption, and recurring costs weaken the expected return. | Weak payback |
| Recommendation | Revisit after assigning ownership and improving infrastructure economics. | No-Go |
Why Eshana
Eshana brings nearly a decade of software quality experience across environments where unverified assumptions can be expensive.
Independent by design
We do not sell an AI platform through this assessment, so there is no incentive to force a “yes.”
Evidence over enthusiasm
Define the criterion, capture the evidence, make the decision.
Have an AI idea list already?
Send us the rough list. It does not need to be polished.