Run an AI Checkup | AI Operator Resource Library | AI Growth Partners

Resource 8 · Use AI Responsibly

Run an AI Checkup

Catch stale context, conflicting instructions, and AI drift before they become normal.

You finish with
A simple AI checkup you can run periodically
Time
20–30 minutes
Best for
Regular AI users, managers, and teams using saved instructions, recurring context, or established AI workflows

AI can gradually move away from the instructions, context, or boundaries you thought you had established. Old priorities remain in context, new instructions conflict with old ones, exceptions pile up, and AI may start making assumptions you never intended. That is drift. A short periodic checkup can catch it.

Before you start

  • Ask the AI what saved instructions, memory, project context, or other standing material it can actually inspect.
  • If it cannot inspect them directly, gather the instructions, context files, governance guide, voice guide, or other material you want checked.
  • Use a few representative tasks where you already know what good output looks like.

The exercise

  1. Re-state the intended boundaries

    Identify what AI should always do, never do, and always leave to a person.

  2. Check instruction drift

    Look for contradictory, duplicate, vague, or obsolete standing instructions.

  3. Check context drift

    Find projects, priorities, roles, facts, or assumptions that are no longer current.

  4. Check judgment drift

    Look for areas where AI is making stronger recommendations, assumptions, or decisions than the operator intended.

  5. Test known tasks

    Run a few representative tasks and compare the output with the expected standard.

  6. Clean and reset

    Remove stale information, reconcile conflicts, restate important guardrails, and save a clean version.

  7. Schedule the next check

    Review quarterly, after major role or strategy changes, or whenever you notice recurring corrections returning.

Copy this prompt

Paste this into your AI tool 
I want to run an AI checkup on the standing instructions and context I use with you.

First, tell me exactly which saved instructions, memory, project context, or other standing material you can ACTUALLY inspect. Do not imply access you do not have.

Then review the material available to you, and anything I provide, for:
1. outdated context
2. conflicting instructions
3. duplicated rules
4. vague instructions that could be interpreted inconsistently
5. assumptions that appear to have become embedded without explicit approval
6. areas where your recommendations or decision latitude may have expanded beyond the intended boundary
7. important guardrails that are missing or no longer prominent

Separate findings into KEEP, UPDATE, REMOVE, and CLARIFY.

Do not rewrite the final instructions until I approve the findings.

Review your result

  • What information is no longer current?
  • Which instructions conflict?
  • What do you keep correcting again?
  • Has AI begun assuming authority you intended to retain?
  • Are important guardrails still visible and specific?
  • Did a recent business or role change make older context misleading?

Operator example

SMB example

A manager originally instructed AI to prioritize rapid growth. Six months later the business is protecting cash and margin, but the old growth instruction remains in a project. AI keeps recommending aggressive spending. The answers are not “broken”; the context is stale. The checkup catches the drift.

What not to do

Do not treat AI’s self-review as sufficient verification. You decide what the instructions and boundaries should be. The AI can help identify conflicts; it should not quietly redefine the rules.

Save the result

Keep a dated clean copy of the approved instructions and context. Record major changes so future drift is easier to spot.

Ready for the next step?

Most companies are using AI too small.

Employees writing faster emails is not transformation. Real AI leverage happens when capable leaders apply it to pricing, operations, planning, forecasting, execution, and decision-making. That shift produced $650,000 in measurable business value for one executive in eight months. That is the standard we build toward.

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