AI for BC Teams: Three Tasks to Automate and Two to Keep in Human Hands

During Fusion’s recent webinar with the Association of Continuity Professionals, AI for BC Teams: Three Tasks to Automate This Quarter and Two to Never Hand Over, Melanie Lucht and James Post shared a practical framework for making those decisions. 

The key takeaway was simple: task complexity is not the best test for whether AI is safe to use. The better question is whether the task is supported by a governed, current system of record. 

When the underlying data is reliable, AI can help teams move faster on administrative work, synthesis, and first drafts. When inputs are stale, incomplete, or ungoverned, even polished output can be wrong in ways that are hard to spot until an actual disruption occurs.

That distinction is central to Fusion Intelligence, which grounds AI-assisted guidance in an organization’s enterprise model. 

Start With the Problem, Not the Tool 

Before applying AI to any business continuity task, teams should first be able to define the problem they are trying to solve and confirm there is an established process behind it. 

“Use AI more” is not a problem statement. A stronger starting point might be reducing the time it takes to review plan currency, pull together BIA information, or turn exercise notes into follow-up actions. 

If a process does not yet exist, or if the data supporting it is not current and governed, AI will only accelerate the gap. Teams should fix those foundations before adding another tool. The same principle applies across business continuity programs, where connected, reliable information gives teams a stronger base for planning and response. 

3 Business Continuity Tasks to Automate

1. First Pass BIA Summaries

AI can help bring together information already captured in BIAs, plans, dependency data, and related systems into a first-pass summary for a planner to review. 

This can save time, especially for teams working across large volumes of information. But it does not mean AI should independently build, approve, or replace the business judgement behind a BIA. Recovery objectives, criticality decisions, and assumptions still need to be reviewed by the people accountable for them.

2. Plan Currency Checks

Keeping plans current is one of the most persistent administrative challenges in business continuity. AI can help flag stale contacts, outdated owners, missing approvals, and dependency changes by comparing plan data with HR platforms, CMDBs, and other records of authority. 

Used this way, AI helps teams focus their attention where it is needed instead of manually reviewing every plan with the same level of effort.

3. First-Draft After-Action Reports

Tabletop exercises and tests can generate a large amount of notes, observations, and discussion. AI can turn those inputs into a first-draft after-action report, helping teams document the situation, identify findings, and organize recommended next steps more efficiently. 

The final output still needs human review. Findings should connect to real work, have clear owners, and reflect what actually occurred during the exercise. AI can prepare the draft, but people need to determine what should change and who is responsible for making it happen. Scenario testing becomes more valuable when those findings improve the next exercise, plan, or response decision. 

2 Areas to Keep in Human Hands

1. Real-Time Crisis Decisions

AI can provide information and help teams prepare, but it should not make real-time crisis decisions. Decisions about invoking a crisis response, setting priorities, accepting tradeoffs, and acting under incomplete information require accountable human judgement. 

During a disruption, leaders need to weigh business context, customer impact, available options, and emerging information. Those are decisions that cannot be handed over to a model.

2. Final Sign-Off and Attestation

Approval and attestation also remain human responsibilities. A model cannot own the liability associated with approving a plan, confirming a recovery strategy, or attesting that requirements have been met. 

This is especially important when working with sensitive plan, incident, or customer information. Teams should ensure AI use aligns with their organization’s security, governance, and data-handling requirements before introducing sensitive information into any tool. 

The 1-Question Test 

Before automating a task, ask: Is there a governed, current system of record behind it, or are we guessing? 

If the answer is yes, AI may be able to accelerate the work and create more time for review, judgement, and action. If the answer is no, the priority should be improving the data and process first. 

The list of tasks that are safe to automate will continue to change as technology and organizational readiness evolve. That is why teams should revisit this question regularly, rather than treating today’s guidance as a permanent rule. 

AI can reduce administrative burden and help business continuity teams work more efficiently. But its value depends on the quality of the information beneath it and the people who remain responsible for the decisions that follow. 

Watch the webinar on demand: AI for BC Teams: Three Tasks to Automate This Quarter and Two to Never Hand Over