AI CAPITAL ALLOCATION
Strategic Resource Planning for Enterprise AI Initiatives
A comprehensive 3-phase methodology for prioritising, planning, and executing AI investments with clear accountability and measurable outcomes
Realistic assessment of capabilities and constraints leads to better outcomes than aspirational planning.
Focus on delivering measurable business impact from fewer initiatives rather than spreading resources thin.
Every initiative must have a named owner with authority and capability to deliver results.
Use quantitative scoring and metrics wherever possible, but acknowledge qualitative strategic factors.
Establish a comprehensive scoring methodology that balances business value, technical feasibility, and strategic alignment.
Score initiatives across Business Impact (revenue, cost savings), Strategic Alignment (competitive advantage, future positioning), and Market Timing (urgency, window of opportunity).
Key Insight: Use quantitative metrics where possible, but accept qualitative assessments for strategic factors.
Evaluate data availability and quality, technical complexity, team capabilities, and infrastructure readiness. Rate from 1 (impossible) to 10 (trivial).
Key Insight: Be brutally honest about current capabilities. Over-optimism here leads to project failures.
Combine value and feasibility scores with risk factors including regulatory compliance, competitive response, and execution dependencies.
Key Insight: The highest value opportunities are often not the right starting point if risk-adjusted probability of success is low.
Starting too many AI projects simultaneously, leading to resource dilution and delivery delays
Solution:
Strict portfolio capacity planning and quarterly go/no-go decisions
Assuming current team can deliver AI capabilities without additional skills or resources
Solution:
Honest skills gap analysis and realistic recruitment/training timelines
Waiting too long to measure business impact, leading to continued investment in low-value initiatives
Solution:
Quarterly value delivery checkpoints with hard stop criteria
Rushing to proof-of-concept without considering production scalability and maintenance
Solution:
Technical feasibility scoring includes production-readiness factors
Core Outcome: Clear, accountable execution plan for AI capital allocation
Framework by The AK Dispatch. Based on enterprise AI implementations across multiple sectors and scales.
Applied across 10+ organisations with combined AI budgets exceeding €100M