True AI Cost Card
One page that puts the full cost of an AI investment in front of the people approving it.
Most AI business cases price the model. This one prices the workflow.
What it does
The Card forces seven cost layers into the same decision, before the money is committed:
- Model — licence, API, hosting, usage and evaluation environments.
- Data — access, rights, quality, pipelines and stewardship.
- Integration — systems, workflow redesign, testing and exception paths.
- Controls — security, privacy, assurance, human oversight and audit.
- Adoption — role changes, training, protected capacity and communication.
- Lifecycle — monitoring, evaluation, model changes, deprecation and exit.
- Run — support, incidents, infrastructure, vendor management and financial control.
Every layer takes five entries: a one-off cost, a run rate, your confidence in both, the owner, and the date the evidence was last checked.
The rule that makes it work
A blank means unknown. A zero requires an owner, evidence and a date.
That single rule is what stops a cost layer quietly disappearing into another team's budget.
The verdict
Write the expected value and the full cost over the same period, then ask the finance owner, the process owner and the technology owner to approve the same case. The Card ends in one of four calls: Approve, Approve with conditions, Rework, or Stop.
Sometimes the full cost kills the business case. That is the Card working, not failing — found in a planning meeting instead of in month nine.
What you get
A fillable one-page PDF, landscape A4. Type directly into it, save it, and bring it to the approval meeting. No signup wall beyond your email, no cost.
Planning instrument only. Adapt the cost categories and accounting treatment with the responsible finance, procurement, technology and risk specialists.