ENGAGEMENTS · AI OPERATIONS ASSESSMENT & ROADMAP

AI Workflow Audit & Roadmap for Creative Teams.

An AI operations assessment maps how your creative and marketing team actually works, finds where AI fits and where it doesn't, and hands back a ranked roadmap with the tool picks and guardrails to run it. I survey the whole team, run sessions role by role, review what you spend on AI tools, and leave a plan your team starts running before the report lands.

LENGTHA whole-team survey, on-site sessions (Done+Dusted ran 18 in two days), then the roadmap and a debrief for each role.
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Fig. 1 Every role gets a cubby. Point at one and its bin slides out. rest

Who it's for

Teams using AI without rules
People already use AI, often on personal accounts. Nobody knows what's allowed or what it costs.
Leaders who need a plan
You need a ranked list of where AI pays off, with an owner and a first move for each.
Creative orgs choosing tools
You want tool picks from someone with no stake in which vendor wins.

What you get

How it runs

  1. 01

    Survey

    The questionnaire asks how each person's week runs and where it hurts, split between the tools the company pays for and the tools people pay for themselves.

  2. 02

    Sessions

    One-on-ones with leaders, group sessions by role, and time with the people carrying the operational load. On site when possible.

  3. 03

    Inventory and guardrails

    Map the tools and the spend, pick tools by the job, and write the one-page rules before anything scales.

  4. 04

    Roadmap

    Rank the moves by impact and effort, assign owners, and start the first ones while the report is still being written.

AI tool selection and guardrails for creative teams

Tool selection starts with the job. I test tools against two or three real, repetitive jobs, then check commercial-use and data terms, fit with where the work already lives, who will actually run it, and how hard it is to leave.

Then five written rules: what data can go into a tool, what ships without review, who approves what, how you disclose AI use, and what the brand never generates. One page, owned by one person. My recommendations aren't tied to any AI tool vendor, so the only thing being weighed is the job.

Proof

Done+Dusted

Summary: AI operations assessment for the producer of the Oscars and the Super Bowl halftime show. Phase 2 was requested before the report landed.

  • 26 people surveyed, 18 sessions in two days on site in Santa Monica, and eleven personal debriefs, one per desk.
  • The survey found 18 of 26 people guessing what they could safely put into a model, and 15 paying for AI tools out of pocket.
  • Delivered a 25-page roadmap, a spend review with four consolidation plays ranked by return, a one-page green-yellow-red data policy, and two install-ready tools.
  • Within two weeks of delivery, one Copilot move saved a coordinator 1.5 to 2 hours a week, and a production exec built his first Claude skill on his own.

Read the case study

Neighborly

Summary: Mapped the repetitive work behind 19 home-service brands, role by role, and turned it into AI workflows the design team runs on its own.

  • Found the bottleneck: brief assembly took 15 to 60 minutes a request, about eight requests a day.
  • Brief builds now take under five minutes. Raw form data in, formatted brief out.
  • Eight workflows documented and tested on live tickets, with five more scoped and staged.

Read the case study

Questions

Q.01What is an AI workflow audit for a creative team?

It maps where the team's hours go, which jobs AI should take on, which ones it should stay away from, and which rules have to exist first. The output is a ranked roadmap with owners and first moves.

Q.02How long does an AI operations assessment take?

It runs in three parts: a survey, the sessions, and the roadmap. At Done+Dusted the sessions took two days on site, 18 of them, and the team started on the roadmap before the report landed.

Q.03How do you choose AI tools and set guardrails for a creative team?

Pick tools against two or three real, repetitive jobs and check rights, data terms, fit and exit cost. Then write five rules: what data goes in, what ships without review, who approves, how you disclose AI use, and what the brand never generates.

Q.04Do you run the assessment on site?

On site is better, because people show you the work instead of describing it. Virtual works too.

Q.05Are your tool recommendations independent?

Yes. My client recommendations aren't tied to any AI tool company. Fast Hours, the podcast I co-host, has sponsors, and they're disclosed on the show.

Q.06What happens after the assessment?

Some teams run the roadmap themselves. Others bring me back for the next piece: a brand-safe visual system, embedded team training, or agents inside their own Claude or ChatGPT.

Read more

A few brands a year. If yours is one, reach out.

Get in touch

DREW@THEBRAINCHILDLAB.COM