AI for Leaders Toolkit
The Leader's Toolkit: five working templates for getting AI right
Five practical, non-technical tools that take you from understanding AI, to finding where it creates value, to governing it, to a plan you can act on. Download the full set or grab any single tool. Yours to use, reuse, and share with your team.
How to use these tools
Each template stands alone, so you can start anywhere. Used together, they form a path: build a shared vocabulary, find your highest-value opportunities, set the guardrails, check your readiness, then put it all on one page. Most leaders work through them in that order over a few weeks, often with their leadership team.
These are the same frameworks behind the AI for Leaders course and Arion Research's client work, drawn from Building the Digital Workforce and The Complete Agentic AI Readiness Assessment.
The Five Templates
1. The Leader's AI Glossary
What it is: A plain-language reference to the 14 AI terms that come up in every strategy discussion and vendor meeting. No jargon, no code, with a "why it matters to you" note on each.
How to use it: Skim it before vendor meetings and strategy sessions so you can ask good questions, avoid being oversold, and lead the conversation with confidence.
Best for: CEOs, owners, and senior leaders who want to lead AI conversations without getting lost in the language.
2. AI Use-Case Opportunity Map
What it is: A worksheet that helps you find where AI creates real value in your business and prioritize honestly. Score candidate use cases on value and feasibility, then sort them into quick wins, big bets, fill-ins, and defer.
How to use it: Brainstorm candidate use cases by function, score each one, and place them on the grid. Start with the quick wins and sequence the big bets. The output is your top five candidates in priority order.
Best for: Leaders and teams moving from AI experiments to a real, prioritized plan.
3. AI Governance & Acceptable-Use Checklist
What it is: The starter guardrails a mid-market leader should have in place before scaling AI, across data, security, oversight, IP, ethics, and accountability. Governance that enables speed, not bureaucracy that blocks it.
How to use it: Check what is true today, assign an owner to each gap, and set a status. Then name your top three risk exposures and who owns each.
Best for: Leaders responsible for adopting AI safely without a dedicated legal or risk team.
4. AI & Change Readiness Self-Check
What it is: An honest, ten-minute self-assessment across the six dimensions that decide whether AI sticks. The barrier is rarely the technology; it is readiness and adoption.
How to use it: Score each dimension from 1 to 5, total your result, and read the band that tells you whether to build foundations, pilot, or scale. Then pinpoint the two lowest-scoring dimensions; those are your critical path.
Best for: Leaders deciding whether and how to invest in AI this year.
5. One-Page AI Roadmap Canvas
What it is: The capstone. A single-page canvas with eight guided boxes that turn goals, use cases, governance, and metrics into a roadmap you can act on and share.
How to use it: Fill each box using your work from the Opportunity Map, Governance Checklist, and Readiness Self-Check. The result is a shareable one-pager that aligns your leadership team fast.
Best for: Leaders ready to turn AI intent into a concrete, sequenced plan.
Download the complete toolkit
The Complete AI for Leaders Toolkit — all five templates in one download.
Everything you need to go from AI-curious to a clear, governed plan: the glossary, the use-case map, the governance checklist, the readiness self-check, and the one-page roadmap.
Why trust these tools
From Michael Fauscette, founder of Arion Research, author of "Building the Digital Workforce," and a Thinkers360 Top 10 global thought leader in AI and Agentic AI. Practical, vendor-neutral, and built for mid-market leaders.
Next step
You have the tools. If you want help putting them to work, here are the next steps:
AI for Leaders course — a step-by-step path that turns these templates into an action plan. Learn More
AI Blueprint — Arion Research validates your roadmap and turns the draft into an executable plan. Learn More
Fractional Chief AI Officer — ongoing leadership to govern and execute your AI strategy. Learn More
Prefer to keep exploring first? Listen to the Disambiguation podcast for plain-spoken takes on leading with AI. Watch