Open with the decision requested
Ask for one action: approve a bounded pilot, continue the current route while testing, restrict data or actions, authorize negotiation, pause the workflow or accept a named residual risk. State the decision owner, date, resource boundary and what remains outside scope.
State the verified change and business relevance
Record the official source, release state, exact model or product route, observed date and what changed in capability, price, contract, safeguards or lifecycle. Separate vendor-reported results from company-observed results. For Astra, OpenAI’s September 3 customer stories report workflow-specific results for Legora and Playco; they do not establish a universal legal outcome.
Map data, action and legal questions
List data classes, source systems, third parties and destinations. State whether the system recommends, retrieves, executes, writes or sends. Identify client, privacy, professional, sector, employment, intellectual-property and cross-border questions that need assigned counsel. Do not turn a model label into a legal classification.
Summarize controls, test and incident readiness
Link managed identity, least privilege, approved sources, human review, tool permissions, logging, retention, deletion, incident response and rollback to the deeper evidence file. Report the representative test, blocking failures, corrections, reviewer time and completed-task cost. A vendor benchmark can justify evaluation; it does not substitute for the company test.
Give Unknowns and owners their own line
List unavailable contract terms, provider-side logs, unresolved role, insurance response, untested language or missing client direction. Name the owner and what happens if it remains open. End with a stop rule and next trigger: model or term change, incident, failed control, new data class, external action, volume threshold or review date.
FAQ
Is this a completed board memo?
No. It is an educational structure. The company, its authority and its counsel must adapt the facts and decision.
Should the brief include every vendor benchmark?
No. Include only evidence that changes the requested decision, label vendor-reported results and link the deeper file.
What does the board or risk committee approve?
A bounded action, owner, limits, resources and review trigger—not a permanent provider-wide endorsement.
Sources checked
- AI Risk Management Framework, checked 2026-09-03.
- Legora financial-statement review with GPT-6 Astra, checked 2026-09-03.
- Playco game prototyping with GPT-6 Astra, checked 2026-09-03.
- Path to Astra: critical capabilities and frontier safeguards, checked 2026-09-03.
- ABA Formal Opinion 512, checked 2026-09-03.
Operational information, not legal advice. Verify current terms, account configuration and applicable professional duties before use.