# AI Agent Business Case Template

This template is a starting point, not financial, legal, security, compliance, workforce, or risk advice. Replace every bracketed field with evidence from your organization. Keep estimates as ranges, record their sources and owners, and use your normal investment and risk approval process.

## 1. Decision and Executive Summary

Business case ID: [Stable ID]
Workflow: [One bounded workflow]
Business owner: [Named person]
Technical owner: [Named person]
Decision owner: [Named person or body]
Decision requested: [Discovery | Pilot | Limited production | Scale | Stop]
Funding requested: [Amount and period]
Decision date: [Date]
Next gate: [Decision, evidence threshold, and date]

Problem: [One sentence with a measured baseline]
Proposed outcome: [One sentence describing the changed workflow]
Preferred option: [Business as usual | Process or policy change | Deterministic automation | Assisted workflow | AI agent | Other]
Reporting currency: [Currency]
Expected annual operating benefit range: [Low | Base | High, currency, period, and timing]
Expected annual operating cost range: [Low | Base | High, currency, period, and timing]
Top risks: [Risk register references]
Recommendation: [Fund | Revise | Hold | Reject]

## 2. Problem and Baseline

Process owner: [Name]
Current workflow: [Trigger, steps, handoffs, exceptions, and outcome]
Annual volume: [Tasks per year, source, date]
Demand pattern: [Average, peak, seasonality]
Current cycle time: [Measure, source, date]
Current human effort: [Minutes per task or hours per period, source, date]
Current loaded cost: [Amount and method]
Current error or rework rate: [Measure, source, date]
Current service or quality result: [Measure, source, date]
Current loss, delay, or capacity constraint: [Measure, source, date]
People or groups affected: [Who and how]
Cost of doing nothing: [Low, base, high, and basis]

## 3. Objective, Scope, and Constraints

Target outcome: [Specific measurable change]
Evaluation period: [Dates]
In scope: [Users, tasks, records, systems, actions, and environment]
Out of scope: [Explicit exclusions]
Agent authority: [Read, draft, recommend, approve, write, send, execute, delegate]
Required human decisions: [Actions and thresholds]
Context required: [Knowledge, Skills, Memory, data, and runtime inputs]
Constraints: [Law, contract, policy, security, privacy, workforce, accessibility, operations]
Prohibited outcomes: [Non-waivable failures]

## 4. Options

For each option, record the workflow change, expected outcome, cost range, time to evidence, risks, reversibility, and reason to keep or reject it.

### Option A: Business as usual

[Evidence and assessment]

### Option B: Process or policy change

[Evidence and assessment]

### Option C: Deterministic automation

[Evidence and assessment]

### Option D: Assisted workflow with human review

[Evidence and assessment]

### Option E: AI agent within bounded authority

[Evidence and assessment]

### Other viable option

[Evidence and assessment]

Preferred option and reason: [Decision based on objectives, evidence, costs, benefits, risks, and constraints]

## 5. Evidence and Assumptions

For every material input, record:

- Input or assumption: [Value]
- Source: [Stable reference]
- Measurement period: [Dates]
- Sample or population: [Scope]
- Owner: [Name]
- Confidence: [High | Medium | Low, with reason]
- Low, base, and high values: [Range]
- Validation plan: [How and when the assumption will be tested]

Do not paste secrets, personal data, unrestricted traces, or sensitive records into the business case. Link to protected source evidence.

## 6. Benefit Model

List each benefit once and state how the changed workflow produces it. Copy this block for every benefit:

- Benefit and type: [Time, capacity, quality, cycle time, avoided loss, revenue, retention, or non-financial outcome]
- Baseline, unit, and measurement period: [Value, unit, dates]
- Low, base, and high change: [Values, unit, dates]
- Realization mechanism and timing: [How the result becomes real and when]
- Attribution and counterfactual: [Comparison method, other contributors, and share counted]
- Included in financial return: [Yes | No]
- Financial value: [Low | Base | High, currency, period, and cash-flow timing, or not applicable]
- Owner: [Name]
- Evidence: [Protected source reference]

Benefits counted in financial return: [List]
Benefits reported separately to avoid double counting: [List]
When benefits begin: [Date and ramp]
Who can realize reclaimed capacity: [Owner and operating change]

## 7. Cost Model

Consider discovery and process redesign; build or purchase; integration and data work; context and Skill preparation; security, privacy, legal, and risk review; testing and evaluation; human review and exception handling; model, tool, hosting, and storage use; monitoring, support, and incident response; training and workflow change; failure, recovery, and contingency; and exit, migration, and retirement.

Copy this block for every cost:

- Cost and category: [Name and category]
- Cost type: [One-time | Recurring | Variable | Contingent]
- Unit and quantity: [Unit, volume, and measurement period]
- Low, base, and high cost: [Values and reporting currency]
- Cash-flow timing: [Date or schedule]
- Included in financial return: [Yes | No]
- Owner: [Name]
- Evidence: [Protected source reference]

Reporting currency: [Currency]
Evaluation horizon: [Start date and end date]
Cash-flow interval: [Month | Quarter | Year | Other]
Discounting or accounting method: [Approved method and rate, if applicable]
Financial measurement basis: [Nominal | Discounted; apply one basis consistently to horizon totals, net benefit, and return on investment]
Annual operating benefit range: [Low | Base | High, same currency and annual period]
Annual operating cost range: [Low | Base | High, same currency and annual period]
Annual operating net benefit: [Annual operating benefits - annual operating costs]
Total benefit over the evaluation horizon: [Sum of included benefit cash flows by timing]
Total cost over the evaluation horizon: [Sum of included one-time, recurring, variable, and contingent cost cash flows by timing]
Net benefit over the evaluation horizon: [Total benefit - total cost]
Return on investment: [(Total benefit - total cost) / total cost]
Net present value: [Present value of included benefits - present value of included costs, if using discounted cash flows]
Payback basis: [Nominal | Discounted]
Payback: [First date cumulative included benefits equal or exceed cumulative included costs on the stated basis, or "not within horizon"]
Sensitivity result: [Assumptions that change the decision]

## 8. Risks, Controls, and Dependencies

Risk register: [Link]
Highest residual risks: [IDs and ratings]
Non-waivable blockers: [IDs or requirements]
Control costs included above: [References]
Dependencies: [Models, tools, data, integrations, people, suppliers, and policies]
Vendor or provider concentration: [Exposure and exit path]
Security and privacy decision: [Owner, status, evidence]
Operational readiness decision: [Owner, status, evidence]

## 9. Pilot and Evaluation Plan

Pilot scope: [Users, volume, authority, environment, and dates]
Comparison method: [Baseline, holdout, shadow, phased, or other]
Primary outcome: [Metric and threshold]
Quality measures: [Metrics and thresholds]
Control measures: [Metrics and zero-tolerance failures]
Cost measures: [Unit and total thresholds]
Adoption and workflow measures: [Metrics]
Sample size or volume: [Basis]
Evidence owner: [Name]
Independent reviewer: [Name or role]
Decision date: [Date]

Expand criteria: [Evidence required]
Hold criteria: [Evidence required]
Narrow criteria: [Evidence required]
Stop criteria: [Evidence required]

Non-waivable legal, contractual, security, privacy, safety, or policy failures block funding, expansion, and release. Hold, narrow, or stop the work until evidence confirms remediation or an approved scope change removes the blocker.

## 10. Delivery, Ownership, and Exit

Delivery owner: [Name]
Operating owner: [Name]
Risk owner: [Name]
Context owner: [Name]
Data owner: [Name]
Support and incident owner: [Name]
Release plan: [Reference]
Monitoring plan: [Reference]
Rollback and suspension plan: [Reference]
Change-control process: [Reference]
Review cadence and triggers: [Dates and events]
Exit or migration plan: [How data, context, Skills, credential references, state, and evidence move or retire; revoke or rotate credentials and migrate them only through approved secret-management and target-system processes]
Final decision, approver, date, and conditions: [Record]