Most organisations don’t fail at AI because they lack ambition or intelligence.
They fail because they commit too early, before ownership, controls, and consequences are clear.

This Canvas exists to slow that moment down.
It is a decision surface designed for leaders who need to determine whether an AI initiative should proceed at all, before vendors, pilots, delivery plans, or internal momentum take over.

This is not a planning tool.
It is a forcing function.

Why this exists
Across executive rooms, boards, and operating teams, the same pattern repeats:

Pressure to “do something with AI” arrives before clarity on:

- what work is actually changing
- who owns the outcomes and the risks
- where autonomy must stop
- how failure would be detected and contained

Once delivery begins, these questions become politically difficult to ask.
This Canvas exists to force those questions before that point.

Discomfort here is not a problem.
It is information.

What this Canvas does - and does not do
This Canvas is designed to:
‍
- force clarity on state change, not aspiration
- surface accountability before optimism
- make permissions, limits, and kill paths explicit
- create a clean go / no-go moment
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It is not:
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- a delivery template
- a compliance or governance checklist
- a maturity model
- a substitute for judgement

If these questions cannot be answered honestly, the responsible action is to pause.

How to use it
The Canvas is intentionally split into two parts.

‍Decision Surface (Canvas)
A one-page decision object used to orient discussion and force clarity.
It is dense by design and not intended for detailed capture.

‍Working Surface
A separate document used to record answers, commitments, and conditions once the questions are faced.

Serious use requires both.

Download the canvas
Decision Surface (Canvas)
One-page decision object for executive discussion
→ Open the Decision Surface (Google Doc)

‍Working Surface
A companion document for capturing answers and decisions
→ Open the Working Surface (Google Doc)

(Free to use internally. Do not resell, rebrand, or claim authorship.)

Provenance

‍This Canvas reflects the same architectural and decision discipline explored in UNHYPED: From Hype to Hard ROI in the Age of AI - a practical playbook for leaders navigating intelligent systems, operating models, and real value creation.

The Canvas is offered freely as a public decision artefact.