What this measures
Readiness is not enthusiasm. It is five things: whether your data is usable, whether a real business problem is on the table, whether leadership will fund follow-through, whether your team will actually adopt what gets built, and whether your systems can talk to anything newer than 2009. The assessment weights those five, because that is where AI projects live or die. The model costs and timelines behind our recommendations come from our cost guide, and the compliance questions map to our POPIA and AI guide.
Questions people actually ask
What is an AI readiness assessment?
A structured check of whether your organisation can turn AI investment into results: data quality, problem clarity, leadership commitment, team adoption, and technical foundations. It exists to stop the most expensive sentence in business: "let's do AI" without knowing for what.
Is my business too small for AI?
Almost certainly not. WhatsApp automations and document intelligence start around R80,000 in South Africa and pay back fastest in small teams drowning in repetitive work. Too small for a R3m platform? Probably. Too small for AI? That excuse expired around 2024.
What score do I need before starting an AI project?
Above 60, start scoping a real build. Between 36 and 60, run a focused pilot on one painful process. Below 35, spend a quarter fixing data and alignment first: it will halve your eventual build cost. The tool gives you the verdict and the reasoning.