Is your business ready for AI? A readiness checklist
· Ian Bensley
Before you spend a dollar on AI, run through this readiness checklist. Most businesses find the gaps are in data and process, not technology.
Enthusiasm for AI usually runs ahead of readiness. The good news: the gaps are almost always fixable, and finding them early saves a lot of wasted spend.
1. Do you know where your time goes?
You can't automate what you haven't measured. If you can't name the tasks eating the most hours, start there - see the real cost of manual work.
2. Is your data in a usable state?
AI and automation run on data. If yours is scattered, duplicated or trapped in someone's spreadsheet, that's step one - often a cleanup and integration job.
3. Are your processes actually defined?
Automating a vague process just makes the confusion faster. If two people do the same task differently, define it first.
4. Do you have a human-in-the-loop plan?
Decide up front where AI drafts and where a person approves. That single boundary keeps trust intact.
5. Is there a clear first use case?
Bounded, high-volume, low-risk. Start narrow, prove it, expand.
If that feels like a lot, it's exactly what an AI readiness assessment works through with you - and you keep the roadmap either way.
Ready to stop doing this by hand? Tell me what's slowing your business down and I'll give you an honest read on whether AI and automation are worth it for you - no pitch, no jargon.