AI Evaluation and Investment Decisions

Microsoft via Coursera

Go to class Write review

Details

Go to class

Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Paid Course
Languages

English
Certificate

Certificate Available
Effort

10 weeks, 1 hour a week
Sessions

Self-Paced
Level

Beginner
Subtitles

English

Found in

Overview

Google, IBM & Meta Certificates – 40% Off

One plan covers every Professional Certificate on Coursera.

Unlock All Certificates

This course equips you to make informed decisions about generative AI investments. You'll learn to appraise AI use cases by balancing their potential for "Hard ROI" against organizational readiness and technical debt. The curriculum covers how to conduct rigorous vendor and tool evaluations within the Microsoft ecosystem, moving beyond surface-level feature checklists to assess architectural fit and long-term total cost of ownership. You will learn to structure robust investment cases that account for the Verification Tax and ongoing maintenance costs. Throughout the course, you will produce executive-level artifacts, including an AI Opportunity Prioritization Matrix, a Vendor Evaluation Scorecard, and a Multi-Year AI Financial Model. These practical exercises enable you to confidently lead technology investment decisions, effectively defend your proposals to a board of directors, and drive sustainable value realization across your enterprise.

Syllabus

Use Case Appraisal: Map Use Cases Against Security Posture and M365 Maturity

Before any business process is approved for Copilot integration, it must pass a two-part organizational readiness test: Does the security posture support it, and does the Microsoft 365 environment have the maturity to execute it reliably? This module gives executives the analytical framework to conduct that mapping, moving from a list of AI opportunities to a filtered, evidence-based shortlist of use cases that are genuinely ready for evaluation.

Use Case Appraisal: Rank Business Processes for Copilot Integration

The readiness mapping exercise tells you which use cases are viable. The ranking exercise tells you which ones to pursue first. This module gives executives the evaluation framework to move from a filtered shortlist of Zone 1 use cases to a ranked, sequenced portfolio: making the invest vs. delay and scale vs. pilot decisions based on a rigorous balance of value potential and data readiness, rather than organizational politics or vendor enthusiasm.

Extensibility and Integration: Critique the Buy vs. Extend Decision

The decision between deploying out-of-the-box Copilot and building custom agents in Copilot Studio is a primary driver of long-term technical debt. It is one of the most consequential architectural choices executives face in the Microsoft AI ecosystem. This module gives leaders the evaluation criteria to critique that trade-off—and extends the analysis to the governance implications of connecting third-party data sources to the Microsoft environment, where integration decisions create data residency and sovereignty and security exposures that out-of-the-box deployments do not.

Extensibility and Integration: Evaluate for Sustainability and ESG Alignment

Environmental sustainability has moved from a reporting obligation to a procurement constraint in many enterprise environments—and generative AI is one of the most energy-intensive categories of technology investment an organization will authorize. This module provides a framework for executives to audit AI solutions against their organization's specific ESG profile—whether that involves rigid net-zero mandates, general sustainability aspirations, or regional regulatory compliance—ensuring that technology investments align with existing corporate commitments. The risk is not reputational alone—it is a governance exposure: an executive who authorizes an AI investment that materially contradicts the organization's published ESG commitments has created a board-level accountability liability that disclosure obligations will eventually surface.

Financial Modeling: Model the Complete TCO for M365 AI Initiatives

The nuances that require specific attention are two cost components that behave differently from conventional enterprise software: consumption-based extensibility fees and API Latency Costs, which scale non-linearly with usage in ways that per-seat licensing does not, and the Verification Tax, which accumulates in operational labor budgets rather than technology program budgets, making it structurally easy to omit from a technology investment model even when the modeler is experienced and thorough. This module addresses those specific gaps.

Financial Modeling: Build the Risk-ROI Analysis

A TCO model tells financial stakeholders what the investment will cost. A risk-ROI analysis tells them whether it is worth it and under what conditions. This module gives executives the framework to build a risk-ROI analysis that compares Microsoft subscription and commitment models, quantifies the risk profile of each, and produces an investment justification that holds up to CFO scrutiny because it presents a range of outcomes rather than a single projection. Experienced financial decision-makers expect scenario-based analysis; this module ensures the Microsoft AI investment case meets that standard.

Governance and Quality: Define KPIs for Copilot Adoption and Output Quality

KPIs for AI programs are frequently designed to confirm that the deployment happened rather than to evaluate whether it is delivering value. This module gives executives the framework to define KPIs that measure what actually matters at the board level—adoption depth, output accuracy, and the productivity impact that the investment case projected—and to distinguish between the metrics that demonstrate program health and the ones that create a misleading picture of success.

Governance & Quality: Establish Human-in-the-Loop Verification Standards

Human-in-the-loop verification is not a quality assurance formality; it is the organizational mechanism that keeps the executive accountable for AI output quality. Without defined verification standards, verification happens informally, inconsistently, and invisibly, which means output quality is ungoverned, the Verification Tax is untracked, and the executive has no defensible basis for the claim that AI outputs meet the organization's quality standards. This module guides executives through constructing verification standards that are specific enough to govern daily operations and documented enough to present to a board audit committee.

GenAI Module: AI Leadership: Managing Stakeholders, Expectations, and the ROI Gap

Two of the most difficult communications in an AI transformation program are the Verification Tax conversation with financial stakeholders and the expectation gap conversation with the board. Both involve delivering a message that is likely to generate resistance, and both are conversations where the framing, specificity, and credibility signals in the communication matter as much as the content. This module focuses on how to use AI tools to prepare and sharpen those communications, and on what to watch for when AI-generated drafts produce language that is professionally sound but lacks the precision and candor that make executive communication credible in high-stakes conversations.

Project Module: The Microsoft Copilot Business Case

Learners receive a provided Microsoft Copilot adoption proposal submitted by a fictional program team at Vantara Group and produce an Executive Review and Authorization Memo. The proposal is realistic but intentionally incomplete in specific ways, reflecting the gaps that most commonly surface when program teams build adoption proposals without full executive-level financial and governance rigor. Learners must identify what is well-constructed, what is incomplete or misaligned, and the specific changes that must be made before authorization, and deliver a final authorization decision with an explicit rationale.