The Human-AI Readiness Assessment
AI does not fix an unclear business. It amplifies it.
Two companies run the same software and get completely different results. The difference is almost never the technology — it is whether the business underneath is clear enough to build on. Find the one part of yours that is not, in about six minutes.
The book
Business Before AI
How Leaders Build the Business Intelligence AI Needs to Deliver Real Results
Eric Goodman, PhD · Scott Sullivan · Mamie-Jean Lamley
The assessment on this site is the one in the book. It opens with the same six questions and closes with the same eighteen statements — and each of the six dimensions maps to a chapter, so your primary constraint tells you where to start reading.
The first title in the Human Intelligence, Amplified series.
In about six minutes
What you will actually learn.
No promised savings number, no rank against other companies. A diagnosis you can act on this week.
Your readiness profile
Where you are strong, where you are exposed, across all six dimensions.
Your primary constraint
The single area most likely limiting results — read against the outcome you name.
One specific next move
Not a list. One thing, written for your situation.
The chapter to read first
Each area maps to a chapter of Business Before AI. Your constraint tells you where to start.
A one-page brief
Emailed to you, written to go in front of your leadership team without editing.
Whether a review fits
If a thirty-minute Readiness Review would help, you will know — no pitch attached.
The problem
Most AI advice starts with the tool.
So businesses buy the tool, the results are uneven, and nobody can quite say why. The answer is usually upstream: the result was never defined, the process changes depending on who runs it, the current pricing lives in three places, and nobody decided what may be sent to a customer without a person reading it. None of that is a technology problem — all of it becomes expensive the moment software is asked to help.
Three simple steps
Six minutes, start to profile.
Six questions first
Yes or no, thirty seconds, no email. Not scored — they show you whether there is anything worth measuring.
Then eighteen statements
Pick one repeated process and rate how work actually happens. One tap each.
Your profile, immediately
On screen, then in your inbox. Details asked at the end, not the beginning.
The four profiles
Which describes your situation?
None is a pass or a fail. They describe different starting points — a situation, not a verdict on you. The most common one is somewhere in the middle.
Foundation First
The result is not yet defined, or the work is not yet clear enough to improve.
Ready to Test
Enough is in place to try one meaningful opportunity and learn from it.
Ready to Scale Selectively
Real capability exists. The task is to scale what has earned the right to scale.
Ready to Amplify
The business is clear underneath. Now AI can compound what is already working.
A different question
Where does your week actually go?
Most owners do not lose time in one block. They lose it in small, repeated pieces. Pick the one that sounds most like yours and Find Your Hours does the arithmetic — what it costs you a week, the one constraint behind it, and the first task to hand off.
How we work
Six things diagnose. Five steps install.
The six dimensions tell you which thing is in the way. These five are what we do about it, in order — because skipping ahead is the single most common reason AI work quietly stops being used.
Work with us
We start with a diagnosis, not a proposal.
Every engagement below answers one specific constraint. Which one you have is not a matter of opinion — it is the output of a six-minute assessment, and it decides what is worth doing first.
If you have not taken the assessment, start there.
Not as a formality. Everything below is chosen against a constraint, and choosing without one is how businesses end up buying a workshop for a problem that was never in the room. It takes six minutes and the first six questions cost you nothing but thirty seconds. Begin the assessment.
The routing
Six constraints. Six different first moves.
The assessment returns one primary constraint — the area most likely limiting what AI can do for you. Here is what usually answers each. Find your own and start there.
Ways to work together
Four engagements, in order of commitment.
Each one states what it is, who it suits, how long it takes, and what it costs.
Readiness Review
NO CHARGEYour profile read against your actual business, by the people who built the framework. Named participants, a real agenda, and no obligation on either side.
Executive Briefing
$1,500For Leadership and Governance constraints, where the problem is not capability but agreement. We work the six dimensions against your business with the people who can actually decide.
- A stated result and a named owner for it
- Boundaries: what AI may do, and what requires a person
- The first process worth changing, and why that one
AI Build Day
$397 VIRTUAL · $997 IN PERSONFor Process and Context constraints. You bring one piece of repeated work and leave with it written down, built, and tested against real cases.
- Your business context, written down
- An assistant built against one real process
- Three test cases run, and a receipt
The Accelerator
FROM $2,500For Context and Measurement constraints, and the step after a Build Day. What was built is installed, tested against real cases, and measured — verification is the spine. Application-based, so each cohort is selected rather than sold.
For teams and organizations
When the constraint is not yours alone.
Team Build Day
One team, one day, private. Their processes, their context, their standards.
Department Sprint
Six weeks inside one function. Installed, verified, and handed over.
Fractional AI Advisor
Decisions, sequencing, and build oversight without a hire.
How we measure it
Every engagement ends in a receipt.
Not a certificate and not a summary. A short record of what changed, with the evidence attached, written so it can be checked by someone who was not in the room. We collect it at the end of the work, and again at thirty, sixty and ninety days — because the question that matters is not whether something was built, but whether it is still running. No invented testimonials, no numbers we cannot show you the evidence for.
What we do not do
Stated now, so nobody is surprised later.
- We do not build systems that act without human approval. Every workflow we install has a person in it, on purpose.
- We do not promise a savings number — or how many hours you will save — before we have looked. Anyone quoting a number in advance is guessing. Find Your Hours gives you your own estimate of where your week currently goes — that is your arithmetic, not our projection.
- We do not take work whose stated objective is replacing people. That is a different engagement and a different firm.
- We do not rank you against other companies, or assign a label you would be embarrassed to repeat.
- We do not use unnamed testimonials or unpermissioned logos, anywhere.
- We do not claim results we cannot show you the evidence for. That is what the receipt is.
Where to start
Find out where the gap is.
Start with six questions that take thirty seconds and cost you nothing — then decide whether the rest is worth your time.
Questions
Questions leaders ask first.
How do I know if my business is ready for AI?
Your business is ready for AI when the work underneath is clear enough to build on: a defined result, a process that runs the same way no matter who does it, and business facts AI can reach. The free six-minute Human-AI Readiness Assessment checks six dimensions and names the one most likely to hold you back.
Why do AI projects fail in small businesses?
Most fail for business reasons, not technical ones. The result was never defined, the process changes depending on who runs it, current pricing lives in three places, or nobody decided what AI may send without a person reading it. AI amplifies what is already there, so an unclear business gets uneven results.
What should I fix before buying an AI tool?
Start with one repeated process, not the tool. Write down the result it should produce, how it runs today, and the trusted facts it depends on, such as customers, offers, pricing and standards. Then decide what a person must approve. That groundwork is what lets any tool you choose deliver.
What is an AI business brain?
An AI business brain is the trusted truth of your business, written down so AI can use it: your customers, offers, pricing, standards and the way you communicate. In Business Before AI it is built in the first two installation steps, Know and Sound, before AI is asked to do any real work.
How do I build a business brain for AI?
Gather the facts AI must never get wrong (customers, offers, current pricing, policies, standards) into one maintained source, then add samples of how your organization actually writes and speaks. Test it against one real, repeated process. Give it a named owner who keeps it current, because an outdated business brain produces confident, wrong answers.
Who should own AI in a small business?
One named person, not a committee. AI pays off when someone owns the result: they define what “better” means, choose the first process to change, and decide what AI may send to a customer without a person reading it. That owner needs real authority and a few protected hours each week.
Does AI have to replace people to pay off?
No. The results that last come from AI handling the repeatable parts of a process while people keep the judgment and approve what goes out. Every workflow we install keeps a person in it on purpose, and we do not take engagements whose stated objective is replacing people.
What is the Human-AI Readiness Assessment?
It is a free, six-minute diagnostic from the authors of Business Before AI. Six yes-or-no questions come first, then eighteen statements about how one repeated process actually runs. You get a profile across six dimensions (Leadership, Process, Context, People, Governance, Measurement), your primary constraint, one next move, and the chapter to read first.
What happens after I take the assessment?
You see your profile on screen and receive a one-page brief by email, written to share with your leadership team. If a conversation would help, you can book a free thirty-minute Readiness Review, where the authors read your profile against your actual business. There is no obligation and no pitch attached.
What is Find Your Hours, and how is it different from the assessment?
Find Your Hours is a free seven-minute check at hours.businessbeforeai.com. Four short steps estimate the hours repeated work costs you each week and what that is worth, name the one constraint most likely limiting what AI can do for you, and give you a ready-to-copy brief for the first task to hand off. The Human-AI Readiness Assessment answers a different question: where you stand across the six dimensions that decide whether AI works, scored into a readiness profile. The assessment tells you where you are; Find Your Hours tells you what staying there costs.
How much does it cost to work with you?
The assessment and the thirty-minute Readiness Review are free. An Executive Briefing is $1,500, an AI Build Day is $397 virtual or $997 in person, and the Accelerator starts at $2,500. Team programs start at $6,500. Which one fits depends on your primary constraint, which the assessment identifies.
AI does not fix an unclear business. It amplifies it. We diagnose the one part of yours that is not clear enough to build on, then install the fix.
The book · Available on Amazon