AI Aspiration and Opportunity

Explore how you can define a 12-month AI aspiration, assess your organization’s readiness, and identify a high-impact opportunity to accelerate AI value.

This exercise uses Copilot as a strategic thinking partner to help you clarify priorities, identify gaps, and define concrete next actions.

You’ll perform three tasks:

  • Define your AI aspiration
  • Assess AI readiness across key drivers
  • Identify your AI gap and opportunity for action

NOTE: Sample prompts are provided to help you get started—feel free to personalize them for your role, organization, and priorities.

Task 1: Define Your AI Aspiration (12-month)

Start by identifying the business outcomes you want AI to influence over the next year. Focus on outcomes, not tools.

1. Identify Business Priorities

Reflect on the top priorities critical to your role (for example, efficiency, growth, innovation, or risk reduction). Use Copilot Chat to brainstorm and refine your priorities.

  • Open a new browser tab and navigate to m365.cloud.microsoft/chat.

  • Ensure the Work mode tab is selected in Copilot Chat.

    Screenshot showing Work mode tab in Copilot Chat.

    Sample Prompt:

      For my organization, what are the top 1–2 business priorities that AI could materially impact over the next 12 months? Focus on measurable outcomes, not specific technologies.

    TIP: To tailor this to your individual context, replace “For my organization” with “For my role as [insert role]”

    Capture your response in Word, OneNote, or Copilot Pages. You will use these notes in Task 3.

2. Define What Success Looks Like

Describe what visible results would signal success if your AI aspiration were realized.

Sample Prompt:

If we successfully achieved this AI aspiration, what measurable outcomes or changes would indicate success? Provide examples of metrics or observable improvements.

Capture your response for use in Task 3.

3. Select AI Value Areas

Review the four AI value areas and identify which would most directly move your priorities:

Screenshot four Ai value areas.

Task 2: Assess AI Readiness

Now that you’ve defined your aspiration, assess where your organization stands today.

AI Readiness Drivers

Assess maturity across these five drivers:

  1. Business Strategy
  2. Technology Strategy
  3. Applied AI Experience
  4. Organization & Culture
  5. AI Governance

AI readiness maturity model with five drivers and five maturity levels.

Use Copilot to reflect on where your organization sits today across these drivers.

Sample Prompt:

Act as a strategic advisor. Based on the AI readiness model, help me assess my organization’s current maturity across business strategy, technology strategy, applied AI experience, organization & culture, and AI governance. Summarize where we are today (Exploring, Planning, Implementing, Scaling, or Realizing).

Capture your response for use in Task 3.

Task 3: Identify Your Gap → Opportunity

Next, compare your aspiration with your current state to identify the most important gap and opportunity.

Step 1: Ask Copilot to Summarize Your Gap

Here is my AI aspiration and AI readiness self-assessment:
[paste notes]

Summarize in 3–5 sentences the key gap between my aspiration and current state. 

Then write an 'opportunity to accelerate AI impact' statement showing how closing this gap could unlock measurable value.

Step 2: Refine Your Opportunity for Action

Identify one area where you can lead or sponsor change to close the gap.

Sample Prompt:

What is the single highest-impact action I could lead in the next 90 days to close this AI gap and accelerate measurable business value?