You have agreed to explore an AI workflow with an implementation partner. The first month will depend on decisions and preparation inside your business as well as the partner's work. Use engagement checkpoints to clarify what you must provide, what you need to review and who can authorise the next commitment.
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This is an illustrative buyer's plan, not a standard Hili package or a promise that implementation finishes in thirty days. Agree the actual scope, deliverables and responsibilities with the provider.
Before kickoff: make the business available
Nominate an owner who can coordinate access to relevant people and obtain business decisions. Prepare examples of the current work, existing instructions and known problems. Identify suitable material through your approved information-handling process before sharing it.
Explain constraints such as busy delivery periods, unavailable reviewers and systems needing specialist administration. The partner needs these conditions to propose a credible approach; they cannot create your team's availability by adding it to a plan.
At the scope checkpoint: confirm the agreement
Review a short engagement record:
Business problem and intended users.
Included work, exclusions and proposed deliverables.
Inputs and decisions your organisation must provide.
Partner responsibilities and specialist dependencies.
Named people accepting outputs and authorising changes.
Review checkpoints and the evidence expected at each.
Treatment of unanswered questions and changed requirements.
Check the actual commercial and technical proposal with the relevant owners. An operational conversation does not settle every contractual, security or data-protection requirement.
During delivery: unblock business decisions
For an illustrative enquiry workflow, the partner asks how to route a message containing both a billing dispute and a new-service question. Your service owners must agree the intended treatment. Asking the partner to write a better prompt will not resolve an undecided responsibility.
Maintain a short list of requested decisions, owners and needed-by dates. Distinguish accepted outputs from demonstrations and drafts. Raise changes through the agreed route rather than expanding the assignment informally.
At the first-month review: decide the next commitment
Check the agreed outputs, open limitations, your team's ability to operate the work and responsibilities for support. Ask what remains dependent on the partner and what evidence is still missing. The result may be continued discovery, further evaluation, a revised scope or a separately authorised release.
Related guidance: guide to mapping the work before changing it.
The controlled-pilot plan explains how to test a workflow. This buyer's checkpoint plan helps your business supply the decisions and ownership an engagement needs. Hili Consulting can help clarify those responsibilities before an AI assignment becomes another project waiting on the owner.
