Before any AI touches your customers
The Owner's AI Checklist
Eight rules, one question to ask about each, and a score from 0 to 3. Tap a score on each rule and the page adds it up. Use it on any system anyone offers you, mine included, or print it and take it into the meeting.
How to score each rule
- 0Nobody can say. There is no rule.
- 1A rule in words. Someone promised.
- 2A check that catches a slip after it happens.
- 3The slip is impossible by construction.
It asks before it sends, spends or deletes, until you approve a task to run alone.
Ask: show me the list of actions it may take without a person. If the answer is that it is smart about it, score 1. If the gate sits inside the AI rather than outside it, score 2 at most.
Every action is logged in plain English: what it did, when, and why.
Ask: let me read yesterday's log, now. If it takes a developer to produce it, score 1. If the system itself can edit or delete that log, score 0.
It runs inside your accounts. Your data, your customer list and your records stay yours.
Ask: where does the data live, and who can export it today? If the answer is the vendor's servers under the vendor's login, score 1.
When it is unsure, a person decides, with a draft already written.
Ask: what happens when it does not know? Listen for "it will figure it out". That is a 1.
Client information goes only to tools you have approved.
Ask: for the written list of every outside service it talks to. If nobody can produce the list, score 0.
Every part has an off switch. Turn one off and that work returns to your team.
Ask: turn one part off while I watch, and show me the work landing back with a person. A support ticket is not a switch.
Nothing runs alone until it passes inspection on your real work.
Ask: how long did it run beside the team, drafting only, before it acted alone? "We tested it" is not a period of time.
Before it goes live, it passes a launch checklist: it says it is automated wherever the law asks, texts go only to people who agreed to them, every marketing email carries an opt-out, and every form carries a privacy notice.
Ask: show me the launch checklist, approved and dated. No checklist, score 0.
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Tap a score on each rule. Nothing you tap leaves this page.