Run a Quarterly AI Portfolio Review: Keep, Fix, Scale, or Stop

An AI portfolio becomes stale when pilots continue because they already exist. A quarterly review creates permission to stop weak work and move resources toward proven value and missing foundations. This decision connects to Build an AI Strategy That Starts With Business Value and Turn Company Priorities Into an AI Opportunity Portfolio, which provide the strategic direction and portfolio context. Use this four-part leadership framework Prepare evidence — Use the same concise packet for every initiative: outcome, baseline, results, cost, adoption, quality, incidents, and dependencies. Review portfolio balance — Compare strategic priorities, run-better versus new-value work, risk concentration, and shared capabilities. Make one decision — Choose keep, fix, scale, stop, or prepare foundations—with owner and conditions. Capture learning — Update standards, evaluations, vendor findings, talent plans, and the opportunity backlog. A practical decision example Leadership stops two attractive pilots with weak ownership, fixes one valuable system with low adoption, scales a proven internal capability, and funds data cleanup that benefits three future initiatives. This is a hypothetical example; use your own baseline, constraints, and evidence. Evidence, governance, and responsible use Use the NIST AI Risk Management Framework to connect the initiative to governance, context, measurement, and ongoing management. The companion NIST AI RMF Playbook turns those functions into questions leaders can assign and review. The GAO AI Accountability Framework is useful for examining governance, data, performance, and monitoring across the system life cycle. Compare the plan with the OECD AI Principles, particularly transparency, robustness, accountability, and respect for people affected by the system. For generative AI, review the NIST Generative AI Profile and test representative cases using OpenAI’s evaluation guidance. Use the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications to discuss application threats before a model can access sensitive information or take actions. Check performance statements against the FTC’s guidance on AI claims, and review information handling with the FTC’s privacy and security resources. For a broader organizational management approach, study the ISO/IEC 42001 overview. Take this to the next leadership meeting Schedule a 90-minute review. Limit presentation time, require evidence in advance, record every decision and condition, and publish the resulting portfolio changes to affected teams. Record the owner, evidence source, decision date, and what would cause the company to stop. The goal is not to make the document look complete. The goal is to make the next decision explicit, measurable, and accountable. Continue with Build an AI Strategy That Starts With Business Value. Use Scale One Successful AI Capability Across the Business to revisit the decision with current evidence.