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The PRACTICAL Framework & Rubric

This page covers readiness, risk, and design evaluation—our PRACTICAL framework. (For the math that turns outcomes into decision‑ready numbers, see Impact Metrics & Formulas.)

PRACTICAL
Nine Pillars of Human Centered AI Design

Privacy & Security

AI needs personal data; misuse risks vulnerable people, legal exposure, and trust

Cost Realism

Run costs grow with usage; hidden tokens, storage, and monitoring can swamp budgets

Change Resilience

Models drift and vendors change; require monitoring and safe fallbacks before scaling.

Relevance & Additionality

AI is costly; Focus on gaps where simpler fixes can’t deliver value.

Timeline Clarity

Pilots drift without decisions; timebox to 30/60/90 days; determine cadence for retraining or updates

Accountability & Oversight

Proactive systems need human control; define owners, kill switch, incidents, transparency.

Attribution & AI metrics

Topline gains can mislead; prove AI caused outcomes, not coincidental improvements

Implementability

Great ideas fail without people, data, workflows, accessibility, and training in place.

Lived expertise & Trust

Without co‑design and transparency, adoption lags and inequities widen despite intentions.

Cross-Cutting Lenses 

Checks that apply across all pillars

Equity & Safety

We check who benefits, who’s left out, and how harms are prevented and handled.

Evidence & Uncertainty

We grade rigor so decisions are made on numbers and facts, not vibes.

Our PRACTICAL Rubric 

Our rubric applies PRACTICAL + our lenses in a standardized, effiecient way for AI project evaluations

How It Works

  • Score each pillar 0–3: 0 Not addressed · 1 Partial · 2 Adequate · 3 Strong

  • Apply two lenses to every pillar:

    • ​Equity & Safety: Red = pause; Amber = mitigations underway; Green = stable/improving.

    • Evidence & Uncertainty : A = causal & tight CIs; B = partial/indicative; C = anecdotal → do not scale.

    • Decision rule: Any Red or Grade C limits or pauses scale until fixed.

  • Download our rubric for full instructions + how to grade each pillar and lense!​

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