AI Readiness Assessment: Score Your Business Before You Spend
Before buying AI anything, score your business on five things: workflows, data, people, budget and risk. Fifteen minutes, honest answers, and the score tells you where to start.
An AI readiness assessment scores your business across five areas: workflows, data, people, budget and risk. Answer honestly, add the scores, and the total tells you whether to pilot immediately, fix foundations first, or get outside help. Fifteen minutes of honest scoring beats a $10,000 consultant audit for most small businesses.
Key takeaways
- Five scored areas: workflows, data hygiene, people, budget, risk sensitivity.
- Score 15+: pilot now. 10 to 14: fix one weak area first. Under 10: get help before spending.
- Most small businesses fail on data rules, not ambition: nobody has written down what may be pasted where.
- The assessment output is a starting workflow, not a strategy deck.
- Talk to an AI expert
1. Workflows (0 to 5)
List your team's five most repeated tasks. Score 1 point per task that is text-heavy, digital and frequent: emails, proposals, research, summaries, support replies, content. 0 points if your repeated work is physical or happens in other people's systems you cannot touch. Most offices score 3+ without trying.
2. Data hygiene (0 to 5)
One point each: you know which business data is confidential; you can name where client data lives; someone owns the "what may be pasted into AI" rule; your files/docs are digital rather than paper; access is per-person, not a shared login. Most businesses score 2 to 3 here, and the gap is the written rule, not the data.
3. People (0 to 5)
One point each: someone on the team already uses AI weekly; someone would volunteer to champion it; leadership (you) will allocate the practice hours; the team sees AI as a helper not a threat; someone can spend Friday afternoons on a pilot. Champions matter more than engineers at small-business scale.
4. Budget realism (0 to 5)
One point each: you can spend $50 to $120/month on a workspace without a procurement process; you can give the pilot 4 to 6 staff-hours a week; you are not expecting a tool to fix a broken process; you will measure before-and-after on at least one task; you can wait 30 days for the verdict. Full marks here means you are structurally ready even if the score elsewhere is low.
5. Risk sensitivity (0 to 5)
Inverse scoring: 5 points if your data is low-sensitivity (marketing, general admin), 3 if mixed (some client data, nothing regulated), 1 if regulated or legally privileged (legal, medical, financial advice). Low scores here do not mean "no AI", they mean the plan needs a no-training, EU-hosted or enterprise tier from day one.
2. Reading your score
| Total | Verdict | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| 15+ | Pilot now | Pick two workflows, start the 30-day plan |
| 10 to 14 | One fix first | Write the data rule or name the champion, then pilot |
| Under 10 | Foundations or help | Digitalize first, or take a consultation before spending |
Whatever the score, the output should be one starting workflow, not a strategy. Businesses that try to "transform" skip the part where someone actually uses the tool on Tuesday.
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Adam Johansson
AI Advisor, Krater
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Bottom line
Readiness is mostly about two things: whether someone owns the project and whether the data rules are written. Score yourself honestly, fix the single weakest area, and start a measured pilot. If the score comes out low and confusing, that is exactly the conversation the free call is for.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI readiness assessment?
A scored checklist of your workflows, data hygiene, people, budget and risk sensitivity that tells you where to start with AI.
Can a small business do the assessment itself?
Yes. Fifteen minutes of honest scoring covers what a consultant audit would find for a business under 20 people.
What score means we are ready?
15 or more out of 25 means pilot now. 10 to 14 means fix one area first. Under 10 means foundations or outside help.
Sources: Readiness frameworks from enterprise AI adoption research, compressed to small-business scale. Prices checked October 2026.