Question 1

What is an AI readiness assessment?

Accepted Answer

An AI readiness assessment tests whether the conditions for successful AI adoption are in place before money is spent: ownership, data quality, usage visibility, and a disciplined approach to use cases. This one predicts which failure mode your business is heading for, not where you sit on a maturity ladder.

Question 2

Will it tell me to buy more AI?

Accepted Answer

One possible verdict is that you should do less AI than you are planning. No vendor assessment will ever produce that output, which is rather the point of this one. If ownership is absent or data is fragmented, the honest advice is to fix that first, and the tool says so.

Question 3

What is shadow AI and why does it matter?

Accepted Answer

Shadow AI is AI use that has not been approved, documented, or risk-assessed: employees using consumer tools on company or customer data without IT or compliance sign-off. IBM's 2025 breach data found around £530,000 in additional breach costs at organisations with high shadow AI use. It is the fastest-growing unmanaged risk in most mid-market businesses.

Question 4

How is the score calculated?

Accepted Answer

Eight questions carry different weights based on evidence of business impact. Ownership, shadow AI visibility and data readiness carry triple weight; use-case discipline and workflow redesign carry double; governance, vendor scrutiny and measurement carry single weight. Maximum raw score is 80, displayed as a percentage. The score informs the verdict but the verdict is a failure-mode prediction, not a score band.

Question 5

What do I get?

Accepted Answer

Eight questions. You receive a named failure-mode verdict (the way mid-market AI spend most likely fails given your answers), an area-by-area breakdown, the single highest-leverage action to take first, and a crosslink to whichever other assessment matters next.

Question 6

Who should complete this?

Accepted Answer

CEOs, managing directors, and owners of mid-market businesses: people who make or approve AI investment decisions but are not necessarily running the technology themselves. No technical knowledge is needed. The questions ask what you could evidence today, not how your systems are configured.

71% of UK employees already use AI at work, mostly unapproved. The only question is whether anyone owns it.