AI Readiness Assessment
Before any strategy work begins, it's worth understanding where your business actually sits on AI today.
AI Strategy for Executives
The Details
Format
Bespoke consultancy engagement, scoped around your business
Audience
Executive teams, boards, MDs, business owners, and senior leadership groups responsible for setting business direction
Delivery
Agreed with you following an initial scoping conversation
Price
Priced on scope. Get in touch to start the conversation.
What Is This Session
Most executive teams don't have an AI problem. They have an AI strategy problem.
Tools are being bought without a plan. Pilots are running without a goal. Vendors are pitching weekly. Some teams are quietly using AI for client work, others are pretending they aren't. The board is asking what the strategy is, and nobody around the table can answer with confidence.
This isn't a training course. It's a proper piece of consultancy work, scoped around where your business actually is and what it genuinely needs. Every engagement is different, because every business is different. We don't apply a standard methodology and call it bespoke.
We start by understanding your business. Then we propose a plan. Then we do the work.
How it Works
Every engagement begins the same way: with a conversation about where you are, what decisions need making, and what getting this right would actually mean for your business.
From there, we will scope the work together. That typically draws on some combination of the following, depending on what your business needs.
Current AI Use
What's already happening across your business, including the shadow AI use that is easily underestimated. Often the picture is more advanced than expected.
Data Position
The state of the data your business holds, how accessible it is, and whether it's in a condition that AI could meaningfully act on.
People and Skills
Where AI capability genuinely sits in your team today, where the gaps are, and what closing them involves.
Tools and Infrastructure
What you've already invested in, what's being used versus paid for, and where licence sprawl is costing you money without delivering return.
Governance and Risk
Your current position on policy, data privacy, client confidentiality, and regulatory exposure. For many businesses, this is the area carrying the most unexamined risk.
Executive Interviews
Where useful, we'll speak with the leadership team. The purpose is to surface what people actually think, about AI, about the business, about where the real opportunities and concerns sit. They don't always come out in a group setting.
Strategy Work
The shape of the strategy work depends on what the assessment and interviews surface. It might be a focused half-day working session with your leadership team. It might be a full strategy day. It might be a series of structured conversations over several weeks. We won't know until we understand your business.
What the strategy work produces is clarity on the decisions that need making: where AI fits in your business, what you're going to do about it, how you're going to govern it, and how you're going to talk about it to your team, your clients, your board, and your investors.
Written Output
Whatever shape the engagement takes, you'll leave with something written down. A clear, usable document that captures the decisions made, the priorities agreed, and the actions committed to. Short enough to reference, clear enough to share, specific enough to act on.
Ongoing Support
Some businesses want a clean handoff at the end of the strategy work. Others want someone to check in as implementation progresses, pressure-test decisions as they're made, and help the leadership team stay on course as the market moves. We're happy to work either way, and we'll agree what's right for your business as part of the scoping conversation.
What's Included
Clarity
Clarity on where your business actually sits on AI today, based on evidence rather than assumption.
Strategy
A strategy that's specific to your business, not a generic framework with your logo on it.
Alignment
Alignment across your leadership team on what AI means for your business and what you're doing about it.
Decision Framework
A decision framework for evaluating future AI opportunities and vendor pitches, so the next decision doesn't start from scratch.
Who is This For
Businesses where AI is on the agenda but the path forward isn't yet clear. Where the leadership team knows decisions need making but isn't sure which ones, in which order, or on what basis.
It works well for businesses of any size where AI decisions carry commercial consequence. It's particularly useful for leadership teams facing pressure from investors or boards to articulate an AI position, and for businesses that have already bought AI tools and aren't seeing the return they expected.
FAQs
Where do we start?
With a conversation. There's no form to fill in, no needs analysis questionnaire, and no obligation. Get in touch and we'll talk through where you are and whether this is the right kind of help.
How long does an engagement typically take?
It varies. Some businesses need a focused piece of work over a few weeks. Others need something more sustained. We'll agree a realistic scope and timeline with you before anything begins.
How is this different from your AI Training for Executives?
The AI Training for Executives session is a structured half-day workshop, a good fit if you have already invested in a tool, or need a focused, time-bounded piece of work to align your leadership team and surface the key decisions.
This engagement is for businesses that need a proper assessment, deeper strategy work, and a written output that holds up to scrutiny. If you're not sure which fits better, get in touch for a conversation.
Why does the readiness assessment matter?
Because some leadership teams disagree about where they actually are on AI without realising it. The assessment surfaces the real picture. What's happening, what's working, what's not, and where the risks and opportunities sit. So the strategy work that follows starts from facts.
What if our leadership team disagrees during the work?
Disagreement about AI usually reflects disagreement about other elements of the business like risk appetite, strategy, where value comes from. We can bring it into the open and work through it.
Will you recommend specific AI tools or vendors?
We'll help you understand the landscape and give you a framework for evaluating potential new vendors. We won't tell you which specific software to buy, because we don't take vendor commissions and we don't want our recommendations influenced by commercial interests.
Can the work be done virtually?
Yes. Strategy work can be done virtually. In person tends to create more honest conversations, particularly in group settings, but we can do whatever's right for your team and your situation.
What's the time commitment from our leadership team?
That depends on scope, and we'll be clear about it upfront. We design every engagement to deliver depth without consuming disproportionate amounts of executive time. Your team's time is part of what we're trying to protect ultimately.
Why work with The AI Standard rather than a larger consultancy or a technology partner?
Larger consultancies do excellent work at a scale and price to match. Technology partners do good work shaped around what they sell. We sit between the two: independent, focused on the decisions that matter rather than the volume of output, and not selling anything except the work itself.