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AI Strategy5 min read
What an AI readiness assessment should actually produce
A maturity score isn’t a deliverable. A ranked, costed list of workflows is.
Plenty of readiness assessments end with a radar chart and a maturity level. That’s a diagnosis without a prescription, and it’s the reason so many of them go in a drawer.
The deliverable that’s worth paying for
- Every core workflow documented as it runs today, including who touches it
- The time currently spent on each one
- A ranked shortlist scored on value, effort, risk and data readiness
- An indicative cost and duration against each candidate
- A build-versus-buy call on each, with a reason
- A sequenced roadmap sized to the team that has to execute it
What it shouldn’t contain
A guaranteed return. Anyone who quotes you a specific percentage saving on a process they spent four interviews looking at is selling you a number, not an estimate. Time saved can be measured. What that time is worth is a judgement only you can make.
Judge an assessment by one question: could a competent team pick it up and start building on Monday? If not, it was a report, not a plan.