Your Business Needs an AI Strategy
Here's the template
We’re past the “get an intern to look at that” phase of AI.
Every business is facing the same fork in the road: Adapt - or spend the next decade wishing you had acted sooner.
If you’ve already worked through my 25-Step AI Adoption Strategy, you’ll know that strategy isn’t optional anymore. It’s foundational.
This is where you go next.
I’ve created a one-page template (PDF and Notion versions available) to help your management team build an AI strategy that’s actually useful. One that anchors your experiments in real business goals, gives your team a shared direction and keeps you accountable through quarterly cycles.
It’s simple, practical, and designed to evolve with your business. It’s also free.
Because if you let another quarter drift by without a clear plan, AI will start happening to your business instead of through it.
👇 Keep reading to find out how it works.
What this template helps you do
Let’s be honest: most so-called “AI strategies” are either vague vision statements… or chaotic to-do lists of tools someone saw on LinkedIn.
This template is designed to fix that.
It gives you a clear structure to:
Reconnect with your core business goals – So AI isn’t a side project, it’s aligned with what you’re already trying to achieve.
Set the right principles – So your team knows what not to do with AI as well as what to explore.
Map your current and future tools – So you can see where you’re duplicating efforts or chasing shiny objects.
Think through People / Product / Customer priorities – So AI creates value for your team, your offer, and your end users.
Define quarterly actions—and assign owners – Because a strategy without action is just a nicely formatted hope.
This isn’t theoretical. It’s the proven structure for businesses that want to take AI seriously, but don’t have a Chief AI Officer or a £10m innovation lab.
If you’re leading a team, running a business, or trying to get your AI efforts out of the “pilot project” phase, this will help you get aligned, focused, and ready to move.
The AI Strategy in Practice
Here’s how different parts of the template could look once filled in: using a fictional but typical mid-sized business.
AI Principles
Think of these as your guardrails. How you want AI to show up in your business.
Human-first, AI-enhanced – We use AI to support people, not replace them.
Use before build – We test existing tools before considering custom development.
Responsible by design – We won’t use AI in ways that compromise customer trust.
Visible experiments – All pilots must be shared across the business, whether they succeed or fail.
People Goals (AI + Team)
What are the AI-related priorities for your workforce?
Run foundational AI literacy training for all team members by Q2
Identify and support 3 “AI Champions” in each department
Build prompt libraries for key roles (e.g. sales, marketing, ops)
Trial an AI assistant for internal knowledge retrieval
Product Goals (AI + Offering)
How can AI help evolve what you sell or how you deliver it?
Use AI to optimise onboarding workflows in our SaaS platform
Test customer sentiment analysis to inform feature development
Launch a chatbot that triages user issues before they reach support
Explore personalised product recommendations in our ecommerce store
Customer Goals (AI + Experience)
How can AI support your customers more meaningfully?
Automate 30% of inbound support queries with an AI assistant by year-end
Improve customer insight by analysing qualitative feedback at scale
Ensure all customer-facing AI tools are reviewed for tone and accuracy monthly
Survey customers on trust in AI-powered services - and share the results
You can get your one page AI strategy template here. You might also be interested in:
The 25-step AI adoption strategy every CEO wishes they had started last year