AI readiness check
Nine questions on the task, the data, the owner and the outcome. They tell you whether you are ready to pilot AI on something real, or whether a little groundwork first would make it work. Nothing you choose leaves your browser.
A guide, not professional advice. Related reading: Is your business AI-ready? A grounded checklist.
In short. A small business is ready to pilot AI when it can name one specific, repetitive task, the information that task needs sits in systems the team can reach, there is an agreed measure of success, and one person owns the result. If the task involves personal or confidential data, check how that data will be handled before anything else.
How the result works
The first eight answers score 0, 1 or 2. A total of 3 or less reads as ready to pilot, 4 to 8 as groundwork first, and 9 or more as start with the process. Ready to pilot also needs a clear yes on three questions: the task, the information and the measure. The last question, about personal or confidential data, adds nothing to the score but can change the result: a Yes means the result is never ready to pilot, it is groundwork first with checking how that data is handled as the first step. Possibly adds the same data step without changing the result. This is a Mowbray screening guide for one workflow, not a certified assessment.
The questions
- Can you name one specific, repetitive task where time is being lost?
- Is that task done the same way, often?
- Is the information it needs in tidy systems your team can reach?
- Can you say what good looks like as a number?
- Is there one person who will own the result?
- Are you starting from the problem rather than a tool?
- Does the process work well today, without heavy workarounds?
- Will you start with one workflow and one measurable outcome?
- Could the task involve personal, confidential or customer data?
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