For CEOs
What should a CEO ask about data and AI?
Ask what it costs including the business hours, which decision changes if it disappears, and whether your leaders read the numbers the same way.
Every report may be accurate. What is rarely checked is whether the people reading them agree on what they mean, and whether the work is becoming an asset or just getting cheaper to keep alive.
Find the one first check that fits the initiative on your desk.
What to look at first
The full cost
Not the invoice. The invoice plus the hours other teams spend working around what is delivered.
The decision attached
For each major data product, one decision that would change if it were switched off.
One reading of the numbers
Ask your CFO, COO and head of data the same question separately. The gap between answers is the finding.
The longer version: Why data strategies fail by month three