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AI Readiness Checklist

Thirty yes or no statements about your systems, your people and your rules. Check what is true today. The score updates as you go.

0 / 30Foundations first

Category 1Data and systems

01We can name the system of record for our clients, matters, deals, patients or orders, and who owns it.
02Our core systems can export or share data without someone re-keying it.
03The documents the business depends on (contracts, policies, procedures, reports) live in one place with access controls.
04We know which of our data is regulated (PHI, PII, MNPI, CUI, privileged material) and where it sits.
05We know the data-handling terms of every software vendor that touches that data.
06We keep a current list of the AI tools in use across the company, including personal accounts.

Category 2Workflows and measurement

07We can name the three repeatable processes that consume the most staff hours each week.
08Those processes have written procedures a new hire could follow.
09We know how long each of those processes takes today and how often errors occur.
10We have tried AI on at least one of them and can say what happened.
11Useful prompts, templates and examples are shared across the team rather than kept on one person’s laptop.
12Someone reviews AI-assisted output before it reaches a client, regulator or counterparty.

Category 3People and skills

13Leadership has used AI tools hands-on in the past month.
14Every team member has had structured AI training in the past year.
15One person is accountable for AI across the company, with time set aside for it.
16Staff know which tasks they may use AI for and which they may not.
17Teams share what works and what fails with AI in a regular forum.
18Our role descriptions and hiring now account for AI fluency.

Category 4Governance and risk

19We have a written AI use policy that every employee has read and signed.
20We know which client agreements, regulations or ethics rules restrict our AI use.
21We can answer “how do you use AI on our account?” if a client or regulator asks.
22AI-assisted work carries an audit trail: who prompted, which model, what was changed.
23We have a plan for a vendor outage, a model change or a vendor exit.
24Confidential or regulated data cannot reach a consumer AI tool without someone noticing.

Category 5Ownership and budget

25AI has a line in this year’s budget for tools and for implementation work.
26We have a written list of AI projects for the next 90 days, each with an owner and a date.
27Each project has a success measure agreed before work starts (hours saved, cycle time, error rate, revenue).
28We have shipped at least one AI workflow into daily use.
29We measure results after launch and report them to leadership.
30We can stop an experiment that is not working without a political fight.

How scoring works

Each statement that is true today is one point, out of thirty.

Score	Tier	What it means
0 to 12	Foundations first	Your systems and governance are not ready to carry AI yet, and tools bought now will sit unused. A readiness assessment finds the gaps and puts them in order before you spend.
13 to 21	Plan before you build	You have the raw material. What is missing is a sequence: which workflow goes first, what it has to prove, and who owns it. A roadmap settles that.
22 to 30	Ready to build	You can ship. Pick the workflow with the clearest measure and run a pilot, with training alongside so the result survives the handoff.