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How to Prioritise Use Cases

A structured approach to identifying high-value AI opportunities and making informed investment decisions

The Importance of Prioritisation

With limited resources and numerous potential AI applications, effective prioritisation is crucial to ensure you focus on use cases that deliver the most value. The AIVAL prioritisation framework helps you:

Objectively compare different AI opportunities
Allocate resources efficiently
Build a balanced portfolio of AI initiatives
Align AI investments with strategic business objectives
The Prioritisation Matrix
A visual tool that plots use cases along two key dimensions to identify the best opportunities

Business Impact

The potential value the use case could deliver to your organisation, considering:

  • Financial benefits (cost savings, revenue generation)
  • Strategic importance
  • Customer experience improvements
  • Operational efficiencies
  • Competitive advantage

Implementation Feasibility

How easily the use case can be implemented, considering:

  • Technical complexity
  • Data availability and quality
  • Required expertise and resources
  • Integration with existing systems
  • Regulatory or compliance considerations

The Four Quadrants

Quick Wins

High Impact, High Feasibility

These use cases offer significant value and can be implemented relatively easily. They should be your top priority as they provide the best return on investment.

Strategic Projects

High Impact, Low Feasibility

These use cases offer significant value but are more challenging to implement. They require careful planning and may need to be broken down into smaller phases.

Fill-Ins

Low Impact, High Feasibility

These use cases are easy to implement but offer less value. They can be good candidates for quick demonstrations or to build momentum for your AI initiatives.

Time Sinks

Low Impact, Low Feasibility

These use cases offer limited value and are difficult to implement. They should generally be avoided or reconsidered.

Conducting a Prioritisation Session
Follow these steps to effectively prioritise your AI use cases with your team
1

Prepare Your Use Cases

Ensure each use case has a clear description, business problem statement, and expected benefits.

2

Assemble the Right Team

Include stakeholders from business, IT, data science, and subject matter experts relevant to the use cases.

3

Score Each Dimension

For each use case, score both business impact and implementation feasibility on a scale (e.g., 1-10).

4

Plot on the Matrix

Place each use case on the prioritisation matrix based on its scores.

5

Discuss and Refine

Review the matrix as a group, discuss any disagreements, and adjust scores if necessary.

6

Develop an Action Plan

Based on the matrix, create a roadmap for implementing use cases, starting with Quick Wins.

Scoring Guidelines

Business Impact:

  • 1-3: Minimal impact, limited to a small team or process
  • 4-7: Moderate impact, affects multiple teams or customer segments
  • 8-10: Significant impact, organisation-wide benefits or major customer impact

Implementation Feasibility:

  • 1-3: Highly complex, requires significant resources or new capabilities
  • 4-7: Moderate complexity, requires some new capabilities but largely achievable
  • 8-10: Relatively straightforward, can be implemented with existing capabilities
Best Practices
Key do's and don'ts for effective prioritisation sessions

Do

  • Involve diverse stakeholders in the prioritisation process
  • Use data to support impact and feasibility assessments where possible
  • Consider dependencies between use cases
  • Revisit prioritisation regularly as conditions change
  • Balance your portfolio across different quadrants

Don't

  • Let one stakeholder or department dominate the process
  • Overcommit to too many use cases simultaneously
  • Ignore technical debt or implementation challenges
  • Prioritise based solely on executive preference
  • Forget to consider organisational change management
Using the AIVAL Prioritisation Tool
The AIVAL platform provides a digital workspace for your prioritisation activities
1
Create a new prioritisation session
2
Add use cases from your inventory or create new ones
3
Score each use case on impact and feasibility
4
Visualise the results on the prioritisation matrix
5
Review the prioritisation session outcomes
6
Mark the use cases you want to make a priority as such. You can downgrade use cases that are not a priority for easy tracking later