Substantiating an investment decision

How can you use AI to justify an investment with traceable assumptions and verifiable calculations?

1960 € per session, excl. VAT

In short

This 7-hour day, excluding breaks, enables participants to formalise an investment decision: compare options, document costs and benefits, model cash flows and test uncertainties. Generative AI helps structure and challenge the rationale; participants verify the calculations and produce a dossier for financial validation.

Why this training?

An investment case becomes vulnerable when projected savings confuse time freed up with expenditure actually avoided. Making the baseline scenario, transition costs and conditions for delivery explicit makes the comparison defensible. AI can suggest overlooked items, challenge assumptions and clarify the summary. It replaces neither supporting evidence nor financial calculations: each proposal must remain identifiable, verifiable and open to challenge. Continuing case study: The fictitious organisation « Pelviane Distribution » is considering replacing its manual order picking with a semi-automated solution. A fictitious training dossier describes volumes, errors, lead times, investments and costs. Participants compare maintaining the current arrangements, organisational improvement and investment in equipment, without presuming which option will win. Transfer to the workplace: On an authorised project, reuse the model, replace the training assumptions with validated data and arrange a financial review. Then plan a comparison of expected and observed benefits, specifying the person responsible and the monitoring frequency.

Objectives of this training

  • Define a baseline scenario and comparable options.
  • Document assumptions, their sources and their degree of uncertainty.
  • Model incremental cash flows and calculate the selected indicators.
  • Test the recommendation’s sensitivity to critical variables.
  • Write a decision-making summary that distinguishes between results, risks and conditions.

Who is it for and what are the prerequisites?

Roles and tasks concerned

  • Management accountants and financial analysts preparing investment decisions.
  • Operational managers and project managers responsible for defending a budget request.

Prior skills

  • Understand the concepts of expenses, investments and cash flows.
  • Be able to use formulas in a spreadsheet.
  • Have practical experience of an AI assistant and know how to contextualise a request.

What you will work on

  1. Framing the decision

    Objective: Define the scope of the decision and the alternatives. Operational problem, baseline without the project, common time horizon and constraints.

  2. Assessing the assumptions

    Objective: Separate available data from estimates. Sources, units, timing, reliability and missing information.

  3. Building incremental cash flows

    Objective: Translate each option into economic flows. Investment, operations, transition, working capital requirements; distinction between freed-up capacity and cashable savings.

  4. Assessing viability

    Objective: Compare the options using consistent indicators. Net present value, payback period, supplied discount rate and limitations of interpretation.

  5. Testing uncertainties

    Objective: Identify the variables that change the decision. Cautious, central and favourable scenarios; sensitivity to volumes, lead times and costs.

  6. Defending a conditional recommendation

    Objective: Present a dossier suitable for use by a committee. Executive summary, residual risks, conditions for commitment and benefits monitoring.

What you take away

  • Comparison matrix of the options and the baseline scenario.
  • Register of assumptions and uncertainties with source references.
  • Financial model with scenarios and checks.
  • Decision paper and benefits tracking table.

Method and assessment

  • Short instructional inputs followed by immediate practice on the continuing case study.
  • Individual work followed by work in pairs, with peer review of the outputs.
  • Guided group discussion: what works, what needs correcting and what remains a human decision.
  • Preparation: Arrange a spreadsheet and access to generative AI authorised by the organisation. Identify the usual sections of an investment case, without sharing confidential data.

Observable criteria: The options use an identical time horizon and scope. ; Each determining assumption has a source or an explicit statement of uncertainty. ; The cash flows are recalculated in the spreadsheet, without double counting benefits. ; The scenarios reveal the conditions that reverse the recommendation. ; The paper specifies limitations, the person responsible for validation and monitoring indicators..

Frequently asked questions

Can a real project be used?

The exercises use fictitious or anonymised cases, exclusively within authorised tools.

Does AI perform the final calculations?

No. The calculations are checked in the spreadsheet and validated by a qualified finance professional.

How should benefits that are difficult to monetise be handled?

Present them separately with indicators and expected evidence, without arbitrarily assigning them a financial value.

Does the recommendation trigger the investment?

No. No sensitive decision is automated; the decision rests with authorised decision-makers following professional validation.

Last updated: