Create a shared deployment brief
Moving an AI workflow into daily use involves more than choosing where the application runs. The business owner, technical team and people responsible for data need a shared understanding of the system’s purpose, dependencies and operating boundaries. A short deployment brief gives those conversations a concrete starting point.
Describe the workflow, its users and the systems it touches. Identify what the first release includes and what remains outside scope. Keep unresolved decisions visible, with an owner for each, so that an assumption in one team does not become an unexpected dependency for another.
Follow the data through the whole workflow
List the information the workflow receives, retrieves, generates and stores. For each stage, establish the processing location and any external service involved. Consider prompts, uploaded files, generated outputs, diagnostic records and backups, rather than looking only at the main document store.
Agree which data is necessary, how long it should remain available and who can access it for support. Record how deletion or source updates will be handled. These are deployment decisions to confirm with the responsible teams; a public website or a product label cannot establish them for a specific environment.
Define access and integration boundaries
Identify how users sign in, how their permissions are determined and which credentials the workflow uses when connecting to another system. Separate the permission to read information from the permission to make a change. Grant the workflow only the access needed for its agreed purpose.
For each integration, document the expected inputs, outputs and failure behaviour. Decide what the user sees if the connection is unavailable or a request is refused. Confirm how the system can resume safely and how the team will know whether a downstream action completed.
Define readiness in terms of the work
Agree the examples and operating conditions that must be reviewed before release. Include normal requests, missing information, restricted content and requests outside scope. The goal is to understand whether the workflow is suitable for its intended users and decisions.
Make the acceptance decision together with the process owner. Document remaining limitations, the review steps that stay in place and the route for escalation. Start with a controlled user group where necessary, and define how feedback will inform the next release.
Assign ownership beyond launch
Name the people who will maintain the sources, manage access, investigate problems and approve changes. Decide which activity and output information is useful for those responsibilities, while limiting unnecessary sensitive data in logs. Agree how problems are reported and who can pause the workflow.
Review the brief when the scope, model, source collection or integration changes. Deployment is the beginning of an operating relationship with the system. Keeping its assumptions and responsibilities current helps the team make informed decisions as that relationship develops.
A Century guide. Use these questions as a starting point, then agree the details for your own workflow and environment.