Strategy
Part of How to plan an AI content operations strategy before you choose software
How to build an AI content operations plan with a workflow map and reviews
A practical guide to building an AI content operations plan, with a workflow map, standards, accuracy checks, publishing cadence, review points and a checklist.
What to take away
An AI content operations ninety day plan is a dated schedule that sets what your team will publish, who approves it and how you will measure it over one quarter. It fixes scope, owners and review points before any tool is renewed.
- Every AI-assisted page needs a named human owner who checks facts before publication.
- Accuracy is a legal duty in the UK, so build checks into the plan rather than bolting them on later.
- Budget and headcount decisions belong in weeks 11 to 13, once you have real output data.
- Keep the plan to one page per phase, or it will be ignored.
Why start with a workflow map?
You cannot plan a quarter without knowing how a brief becomes a published page today. Map the steps, then mark where drafts, edits and sign-off happen. Include the people involved, not just the software.
Brief to Published Page
- Brief
- Draft
- Edit
- Sign-off
- Published
The table below is a minimal example map. Adjust the steps, owners and times to your team.
| Step | Owner | Input | Output | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brief | Content lead | Search and customer data | One-page brief | 1 hour |
| Draft | Writer | Brief and sources | Draft with source notes | 3 hours |
| Fact check | Subject owner | Draft and sources | Checked draft | 1 hour |
| Edit | Editor | Checked draft | Final copy | 1 hour |
| Sign-off | Accountable owner | Final copy and evidence | Approval record | 30 minutes |
| Publish | Web team | Approved copy | Live page | 30 minutes |
Times are illustrative for a small team.
Most teams find two or three handover points where work stalls. Name those bottlenecks in the plan, because they decide whether a ninety day target is realistic. A team producing ten pages a month will not suddenly publish sixty without new capacity.
Set the plan against your wider operating model, which the AI content operations strategy framework sets out. Keep the schedule consistent with the objectives, roles and tooling it covers.
What should weeks one to six cover?
Weeks one and two are for mapping and baseline numbers. Weeks three to six set standards: tone, sourcing rules, disclosure practice and the approval route for AI-assisted drafts.
Weeks One to Six
- Weeks 1-2Mapping and baseline numbers
- Weeks 3-6Set tone, sourcing and disclosure standards
- Weeks 3-6Define approval route for AI-assisted drafts
- Weeks 3-6Assign an owner per content cluster
Write down who signs off regulated claims. Financial promotions, health claims and pricing statements carry extra duties, so in the UK follow the ASA/CAP Code, CMA guidance and FCA rules, while the Business Guidance Resources are a comparative reference only.
UK compliance check: the ASA/CAP Code covers advertising claims, the CMA covers consumer protection and pricing, and the FCA covers financial promotions. Record the evidence for each regulated claim before publication.
Assign an owner for each content cluster. One person can own several clusters, but every published page needs a single accountable name. That person checks facts, links and dates before the page goes live.
How do you keep accuracy and disclosure in order?
The Trade Descriptions Act 1968 prohibits false trade descriptions, which underpins why accuracy checks matter in marketing content. Build a verification step into every draft, whatever tool produced it.
Accuracy and Disclosure Checks
- Verification step in every draft
- Check regulated claims against standards
- Record what was checked and by whom
- Date the note for later questions
For AI systems themselves, the BSI page on artificial intelligence covers standards and best practice that can inform your internal rules. Use it to shape your review checklist rather than to replace legal advice.
Record what was checked and by whom. If a claim is later questioned, a dated note is worth more than a memory of a conversation.
What does a realistic publishing cadence look like?
Take your current monthly output and set the ninety day target at a modest increase, not a leap. Worked example: if you publish eight pages a month now, plan for ten pages a month by week ten. That is 24 pages across the quarter, against a 30 page target if the new rate holds.
Modest Cadence Increase
- 8Current output
- 10Week ten target
- £400Tooling spend
- 2Review windows
- 1weekCatch-up
At £400 a month for tooling, eight pages a month is £50 per page. At ten pages a month it is £40 per page. Those figures cover licences only, not staff time.
Publish in batches so review capacity matches production. Book two review windows a week, such as Tuesday and Thursday, because deadlines force decisions.
Hold week eleven free of launches for catch-up. Plans that assume every week runs perfectly fail in week five.
What should the weeks eleven to thirteen review cover?
Count published pages, review turnaround times and the number of corrections made after publication. A falling correction rate matters more than a rising page count.
Compare actual output with the target you set in week one. If you missed it, identify whether the cause was capacity, approvals or briefs. Then adjust the next quarter rather than rewriting history.
This is also the point to revisit budget. The AI content operations: strategy and planning guide for 2027 shows how to align spend with evidence.
Ninety day checklist
- Workflow map with named owners at each handover.
- Baseline figures for output, review time and corrections.
- Standards document covering tone, sourcing and disclosure.
- Approval route for regulated or high-risk claims.
- Verification step recorded for every published page.
- Publishing cadence with fixed review windows.
- One catch-up week with no launches.
- Review meeting booked for week thirteen.
- Budget decision deferred until review evidence exists.
Common questions
How long should the plan take to write?
A single working session of two to three hours is enough for most teams. The value comes from the decisions you record, not the length of the document.
Can we run this without new tooling?
Yes. Many teams complete a first ninety day cycle using existing tools and a tighter approval route. Tooling decisions are easier once you have output data.
Who should own the plan?
One named person should own it, usually a content lead or operations manager. A committee can contribute, but a single owner keeps the schedule moving.
How do we handle pages that need legal review?
Give those pages their own track with longer lead times. Do not let them block the standard publishing queue, or the whole plan slows down.
