A Phased RAG Rollout Plan for SMEs (A Practical 90-Day Guide)

1. Why SMEs need a phased approach to RAG

RAG is powerful—but rolling it out too quickly or too broadly is one of the main reasons AI initiatives stall.

A phased rollout allows SMEs to:

• prove value quickly,
• reduce risk,
• build staff trust,
• avoid unnecessary cost,
• refine documents and processes gradually.

This 90-day plan focuses on confidence first, scale later.

2. Phase 0 (Week 0): define success before touching technology

Before any technical work begins, answer three questions:

• What problem are we solving?
• Who will use RAG first?
• How will we know it’s working?

Good starting success measures include:

• fewer interruptions to managers,
• faster onboarding,
• consistent answers to common questions.

This phase prevents “AI for AI’s sake”.

3. Phase 1 (Days 1–30): internal pilot with a narrow scope

Goal

Deliver immediate value to a small group using a small, trusted document set.

What to include

• 5–20 curated documents
• One department or function
• Clear internal use only

Typical use cases

• staff FAQs,
• onboarding questions,
• operational procedures,
• HR guidance.

Key success factors

• Clean, up-to-date documents
• Clear access control
• AI instructed to avoid guessing

What to avoid

• Uploading everything
• Customer-facing use
• Complex workflows

4. Phase 1 outputs (what “good” looks like)

By the end of the first month:

• staff are using the system voluntarily,
• answers feel consistent,
• managers report fewer interruptions,
• gaps in documentation are visible.

This is a strong signal to continue.

5. Phase 2 (Days 31–60): refine, expand and stabilise

Goal

Improve accuracy, increase adoption and expand to a second use case.

What to do

• review usage logs,
• identify weak or missing documents,
• improve chunking and structure,
• add a second department or document set.

Typical expansions

• technical documentation,
• job procedures,
• compliance guidance,
• health and safety processes.

Governance improvements

• clear document ownership,
• basic review schedules,
• refined access permissions.

6. Phase 2 outputs

By day 60, SMEs typically see:

• higher usage across teams,
• clear ROI indicators,
• better-quality documentation overall,
• increased confidence in AI answers.

At this point, RAG is no longer a pilot—it’s a trusted internal tool.

7. Phase 3 (Days 61–90): scale safely and plan ahead

Goal

Make RAG a stable, maintainable part of business operations.

Key actions

• expand to additional teams,
• formalise document review processes,
• define acceptable use policies,
• introduce basic staff training.

Advanced options (optional)

• caching common answers,
• structured prompts by department,
• integration with internal systems.

8. When to consider customer-facing RAG

Only after:

• internal RAG is stable,
• documents are tightly controlled,
• access rules are proven,
• failure modes are understood.

Customer-facing RAG should always be:

• limited in scope,
• heavily guarded,
• easy to disable quickly.

9. Roles and responsibilities

Successful SMEs assign clear ownership:

• Business owner / director — defines objectives
• Process owners — maintain documents
• Technical owner — manages access and system health

RAG fails without ownership.

10. Budgeting realistically

A phased rollout keeps costs predictable:

• low initial setup,
• controlled document growth,
• measured AI usage.

Most SMEs can validate ROI before committing to long-term spend.

11. Signs you are moving too fast

• staff don’t trust answers,
• too many documents added too quickly,
• security questions unanswered,
• no one owns document quality.

When this happens, pause and stabilise.

12. Signs the rollout is succeeding

• staff rely on RAG first,
• questions repeat less often,
• documentation improves organically,
• managers report time savings.

13. How this approach protects SMEs

This phased rollout:

• reduces AI risk,
• prevents wasted spend,
• builds staff confidence,
• creates long-term value.

14. The bottom line

RAG works best when treated as a business capability—not a technical experiment.

A phased 90-day rollout allows SMEs to:

• start small,
• learn quickly,
• scale safely,
• prove ROI early.

This approach consistently delivers successful, sustainable AI adoption in small and medium-sized businesses.