Before You Ask What AI Can Do, Ask What Your Business Is Ready For

AI and emerging technologies are moving quickly. The conversation around what they can do for a business is changing just as fast.

Before deciding where to go next, it helps to have an honest understanding of where you are today.

A few questions can tell you a lot:

What data do you trust today?
Where do processes still rely on workarounds, spreadsheets or tribal knowledge?
What keeps you awake at night operationally?
Are your processes and systems ready to support automation?
Are your people ready, willing and confident enough to use AI effectively?

I don't believe the goal is to prove that a business is “AI ready.” It's to establish an objective baseline using what we can observe about the business and an honest understanding of how the workforce sees it.

That gives leadership a better starting point:

What's working, where the gaps are, and where it makes sense to focus first.

A great AI use case isn't necessarily a great business opportunity if the organization isn't prepared to implement it, adopt it and ultimately generate a tangible return on the investment.

The companies that get the most from AI may not be the ones moving fastest. They may be the ones that understand where they are starting from.

Start with the current state. Establish the baseline. Then decide where to go next.

That's where I believe the real AI readiness conversation begins.