If you want to lead AI in your role without a technical background, you need frameworks. Many people feel rattled by AI. There are so many tools and so many ideas. Your job as a leader is to stay calm, help prioritise and review the ideas, and keep the work moving forward. One framework does the ranking with two scores for every idea: effort and business impact.

The job sounds hard. A framework makes the job easier. A framework is a set way to take in information, process the information, and set priorities. Here, the information is the ideas. With a set way in place, every AI idea follows the same steps, so the volume of ideas stays manageable. The framework has three steps: a log, two scores, and a decision.

Ideas for using AI in the business reach the leader all the time. The first response to every one is the same, and the response is calm: the idea goes into the log. The first step never changes, and scoring follows. The leader gives each logged idea two scores. One covers level of effort. The other covers level of business impact.

The effort score answers a question: how hard will the idea be to do in practice? The impact score answers another: how much does the business get from the idea? Two answers side by side give a quick view of where the idea stands. Ideas arrive all the time, which is why a quick view helps.

Take an idea with low to mid effort and high business impact. The answer is yes. Low effort qualifies. Mid-level effort qualifies too, as long as the business impact is high. The work is modest, and the business gets a lot from the work. Both scores support the idea, so the decision comes quickly. The leader says yes, and the business does the work.

Now take an idea with no business impact and high effort. The idea still goes into the log, so the person who raised the idea does not feel ignored. Logging acknowledges the idea without promising the work. From the log, the idea joins the backlog. The leader gets to the idea if the business solves everything else first. The condition is hard to meet, so the idea waits.

Both ideas get a decision, and the work keeps moving forward. The log gives even the waiting idea a place. Logging is a small step. Small steps like this do a lot for your organisation, and they put you in a strong leadership position.

The tools and the ideas keep arriving, and your job stays the same: to stay calm, prioritise, and keep moving forward. Two scores per idea make the ranking quick. Attention goes to the ideas with low to mid effort and high business impact, and the log keeps every idea.