Consulting Practice
Retire a proposal assistant
A former tool still holds client materials after the team moves to a new workflow.
Lifecycle
Free Canadian small business workbook
AI Workflow Decommissioning Checklist
A worksheet for pausing, replacing, archiving, or retiring AI workflows without leaving operating debt.
7 pages · PDF workbook · No email required
Preview the complete PDF All 7 pages · Free to explore
Scroll through the full workbook below. Download the PDF for selectable text, printing and your own working copy.
What’s inside
A working guide
for a real decision.
Define retirement criteria, data handling, access removal, owner signoff, replacement paths, communication, and archive requirements for AI workflows. Use this guide to make the operating choice explicit, test it with evidence, and record who owns the next decision.
Who this is for
Teams with multiple experiments, old automations, unused GPTs, or abandoned pilots.
Bring the people who own the work
Include the workflow owner, a person who performs the work, a reviewer with authority to approve or stop it, and the relevant data or tool owner.
Includes an explainer, working worksheet, three illustrative examples and practical considerations. This is a planning PDF, not prebuilt automation software.
Use it with your own work
Five questions
to work through.
Choose one workflow. Record enough context to support a decision, then use the worksheet to name the owner, evidence and next review.
Pause
Should the workflow be paused before full retirement?
Replace
What system, person, or process takes over?
Archive
Which records, logs, prompts, evaluations, or decisions must be preserved?
Remove access
Which permissions, API keys, tools, or integrations must be revoked?
Communicate
Who needs to know the workflow is changing or ending?
Illustrative examples from the workbook
Where this becomes practical.
Independent Retailer
Replace an ordering pilot
The old integration keeps running scheduled jobs after a new system takes over.
Accounting Practice
Retire a summary workflow safely
The firm must preserve approved records while removing access, caches, and obsolete automations.
- AI-supported role
- Inventory active jobs, data, connectors, outputs, dependencies, and remaining obligations.
- Human authority
- The owner approves pause or retirement, communicates changes, revokes access, and verifies cleanup.
- What to measure
- Track orphaned credentials, unexported records, unfinished jobs, and post-retirement incidents.
Illustrative scenarios, not client results or a promise of performance. The workbook includes additional case-specific prompts.
A useful first step
Use the workbook.
Bring us the next question.
Download and use it without booking a call. If you want help applying it, email Chris with the workflow you’re considering and what you want to improve.
Discuss your workflowFurther reading in the library
General operational guidance only. These resources are not legal, privacy, cybersecurity or regulatory advice.