self-assessment · 18 questions · about 10 minutes

Is your business ready for AI?

76% of small businesses now use AI in some form, but only 14% have it working inside their actual operations (Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses survey, 2026). The difference is not the tools. It is whether the business was ready before the tools showed up. Answer honestly and find out which side of that gap you are on.

section 1 · data and systems

1. Is your customer and job information in one place, rather than scattered across email, texts, spreadsheets, and paper?
2. Could you pull a clean list of your last 12 months of customers or jobs in under 10 minutes?
3. Do you avoid typing the same customer information into more than one system?
4. Could a new hire find a past customer's history without asking a coworker?

section 2 · process documentation

5. If you were out sick for a week, could someone run your busiest process from written instructions alone?
6. Do your 3 most common tasks have a written step-by-step, rather than living in someone's head?
7. When a mistake happens, can you point to the exact step where it went wrong?
8. Does your team do the same task the same way regardless of who is doing it?

section 3 · repetition and volume

In this section "yes" scores points, because repetitive volume is what makes automation worth the money.

9. Is there a task you or your team does more than 5 times a week that feels repetitive?
10. Does someone spend more than 2 hours a week on data entry or copy-pasting between systems?
11. Do you answer certain customer questions with nearly identical wording every time?

section 4 · team and buy-in

12. Would your staff try a new tool if it saved them time, rather than resisting any change?
13. Is there at least one person besides you who would champion a new tool internally?
14. When your team suggests a shortcut or tool, does it get a real follow-up?

section 5 · budget and focus

15. Could you set aside $100 to $300 a month to test a tool that saved 5+ hours a week?
16. Can you name ONE specific task you want help with, rather than "we should use AI"?
17. If you have abandoned a tool before, do you know why it did not stick?
18. Do you know roughly what an hour of your own time is worth to the business?

0 of 18 answered