# AI disaster recovery readiness checklist

VisiFlo · 28 October 2026

Use this editable guide to plan an authorised recovery exercise. It is not a completed assessment, certification or recovery-time guarantee.

## Define the business task

- Workflow and version:
- Business owner / recovery owner / backup contact:
- Essential work that must continue:
- Maximum tolerable downtime:
- Acceptable loss of recent data:
- Approved manual or technical fallback:

## Before the exercise

- [ ] Written scope, authorisation and isolated test environment agreed.
- [ ] Synthetic data and simulated or disabled outbound actions in place.
- [ ] AI provider, tools, APIs, knowledge sources and business records mapped.
- [ ] Workflow instructions, configuration, permissions and dependencies recorded.
- [ ] Protected backups and a documented safe recovery point available.
- [ ] Recovery access and contacts available outside the affected system.
- [ ] Pause controls cover triggers, scheduled work, queues and retries.
- [ ] Completed external actions can be distinguished from pending work.
- [ ] Valid work after the recovery point has an agreed reconciliation method.
- [ ] Restart checks and the person authorised to approve them are named.

## Rehearse one failure

Choose a scenario: unavailable AI provider / harmful workflow update / lost response after a completed action / damaged knowledge or records.

1. Stop further harmful actions and preserve evidence.
2. Switch essential tasks to the agreed fallback and notify the responsible people.
3. Follow the authorised recovery procedure; reconcile pending and completed actions.
4. Check records, permissions, knowledge, outputs and the full business task.
5. Obtain approval, resume within a limited scope and monitor the result.

## Record the evidence

| Check | Expected | Observed | Evidence | Pass / fail / unknown | Owner and next action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pause stops new harmful work | | | | | |
| Essential work continues through the fallback | | | | | |
| Recovery point is usable and appropriate | | | | | |
| Valid newer work is preserved or reconciled | | | | | |
| Completed actions are not repeated | | | | | |
| Permissions and approved knowledge are correct | | | | | |
| Business task produces the expected outcome | | | | | |

- Exercise date, versions and conditions:
- Actual elapsed recovery time and how it was measured:
- Age of restored data / data changes requiring reconciliation:
- What was simulated or could not be inspected:
- Outstanding failures or unknowns:
- Decision: remain paused / repeat testing / limited restart:
- Approval and responsible owner:
- Next exercise date and changes that trigger an earlier recheck:

Do not record secrets or unnecessary personal information in this worksheet. Store evidence with suitable access controls. Never rehearse destructive actions against production without a separately authorised plan.

Article and primary references: https://visiflo.ai/insights/ai-disaster-recovery-business-continuity