How to scope a brief for an AI consultant, with a fill-in template

The brief is the real protection

A vague brief makes proposals difficult to compare. A consultant who receives "help us use AI" will quote for whatever they like to do. A consultant who receives a tight one-page brief quotes for your problem, and you can compare the replies line by line. This resource gives you the template. It is for any provider you approach and does not compare providers.

The template

1. The problem, as a cost. Who loses how much time, doing what, how often?
2. The systems involved. Name the email, calendar, booking, accounting and website tools, and who administers each.
3. The inputs. Describe the real messages or documents the work will see, and what has to be removed before anyone outside the business sees them.
4. The limits. List what must never happen, such as sending anything to a client unreviewed.
5. The decision-maker. One named person who approves the work.
6. The success measure. One number you can count yourself.
7. The out-of-scope list. Be explicit about what you are not asking for.

Fictional completed brief

Fictional example. Names and messages are invented.

Imagine "Example Lettings", an invented agency of eight people. The brief reads in short form:

• Problem: tenants' repair requests arrive by email, text and a web form, and the office copies each into a spreadsheet. About 40 minutes a day.
• Systems: shared mailbox, the web form plug-in, a spreadsheet. The office manager administers all three.
• Inputs: fifty past requests with names, addresses and phone numbers replaced by placeholders.
• Limits: nothing is sent to a tenant or contractor without a person reading it. No decisions about who is responsible for a repair.
• Decision-maker: the office manager.
• Success: minutes per day logging requests, counted for two weeks before and four after.
• Out of scope: replacing the spreadsheet, contacting contractors, anything on the sales side.

Reading the replies

Price is deliberately not a row. Compare it only after the scope matches, otherwise you are comparing different jobs.

Where the town you trade in comes in

Surrey Directory's coverage is six towns: Guildford, Woking, Epsom, Reigate, Camberley and Farnham. If your customers come from several of these, say so in the inputs section, because enquiries that mention different towns may need different handling. You do not need your consultant to be in any of them, as most of this work happens in online tools.

Human checks

• Read the sample outputs the consultant produces from your own inputs before agreeing anything.
• Check any claim about a tool against that tool's own documentation, not the consultant's summary.
• Ask who holds each login at the end.

Acceptance checklist

• Each deliverable in the quote is shown working with your sample inputs.
• Your out-of-scope list was respected.
• A document in plain English explains the setup.
• You hold the logins and know how to switch it off.
• The success number has been measured against the baseline you took.

Measuring the outcome

Take the baseline before the work starts, and re-measure at two and six weeks. If the number has not moved, ask what the consultant proposes to change. No outcome is guaranteed by this resource.

About the publisher

Dean Keating publishes this directory network from Horndean, Hampshire, and offers live remote AI business coaching in which the client implements. Separately scoped and quoted installation is a different service. Because Dean offers these services, this is an affiliated resource, not independent advice. Contact: 07810 666662, or WhatsApp 07418 627304.