AI readiness checklist: six checks to run on one workflow before a pilot
Pick one workflow and check six things before any money goes into an AI pilot: who owns it, where its data lives, whether permissions are enforced, whether changes are tracked, what is already automated, and which AI tools people already use. Two weak answers are enough to wait.
Key takeaways
- Readiness belongs to a workflow. A company is never ready or unready as a whole.
- Each check has a pass you can verify in the system, not in a meeting.
- Ownership and permissions are the two that block a build outright.
The six checks and what a pass looks like
- 1. Ownership
- One named person can approve a change to the workflow this week, without convening anyone.
- 2. Data location
- Every field the task needs is in a system with an API. Nothing essential sits in a personal spreadsheet or an inbox.
- 3. Permissions
- Access is enforced by the platform. You can state what a service account would be able to read.
- 4. Change tracking
- You can find out who changed a workflow, a field or a rule last month.
- 5. Existing automation
- Each rule has an owner and a known purpose, and failures notify someone.
- 6. AI already in use
- You know which assistants staff use on this work today, and with what data.
Scoring yourself without flattery
Test each answer in the tool. For ownership, ask the named person to approve a small real change and see how long it takes. For permissions, log in as the least privileged user and try to open something sensitive. A check that passes in conversation and fails in the system is a fail.
If you want numbers, the scorecard asks two questions per area and returns a score for each.
What to fix first when several checks fail
Start with the owner, since every other fix needs someone to decide it. Permissions come second, because they are the gap that turns into an incident. Data location is usually the largest piece of work and can be narrowed: scope the first build to what the system already holds and move the spreadsheet step later.
When a checklist is not enough
A checklist tells you whether to proceed. It does not tell you what to build, in what order, or what it will cost. Those answers need someone reading the configuration itself, which is the job of the AI Readiness Audit.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the checklist take?
Our workflow fails three checks. Is AI off the table?
Prefer to have the six checks done inside your systems, with a written result? That is the audit.