Design principles
- Observable states, not opinions. Every answer describes something you can verify, such as "a written policy that staff have acknowledged", rather than a sentiment such as "we are fairly advanced".
- Organisation-wide. The assessment looks at the company as a whole, not its most advanced team.
- Business first. Technology is one dimension of seven. Most AI programmes stall on ownership, data, operating model and adoption, not on tools.
- From diagnosis to direction. You set where you need to be in 18 months, so the report ranks priorities by the gap to your own ambition, not only by today's weakest scores.
- Actionable. Each result maps to concrete actions that a leadership team can start within 30 days.
Seven dimensions
The dimensions fall into two families. Foundations are the enabling conditions that every AI programme needs. Differentiators are the leadership and organisational choices that research on AI leaders most consistently links to value.
| Dimension | Family | What it measures | Examples of what we ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy & ambition | Differentiator | How clearly AI is tied to business goals and focused on a few domains. | Ambition, priority domains, funding, CEO and board involvement |
| Data foundations | Foundation | Whether data is accessible, trusted and owned. | Data access, quality, ownership, usable company knowledge |
| Technology & platforms | Foundation | Whether the technology estate can support AI at scale. | Core systems, approved tools, integration, deployment at scale |
| People & culture | Differentiator | Whether people use AI and the organisation builds capability. | Adoption, specialist talent, training, change management |
| Operating model | Differentiator | Whether ownership, delivery and workflows are organised for AI. | Business ownership, process redesign, delivery teams, human oversight |
| Governance, risk & security | Foundation | Whether AI is used safely and in line with regulation. | Usage policy, risk review, security controls, regulation |
| Use cases & value | Differentiator | Whether AI delivers measurable results. | Portfolio, use cases in production, value tracking, scaling |
Scoring
Each of the 28 questions offers five answers, ordered from least to most mature and scored from 1 to 5.
- Dimension score: the average of its four answers, on a 1–5 scale.
- Readiness index: the weighted average of the seven dimension scores, multiplied by 20, giving a score out of 100. Differentiators carry a weight of 1.25 and foundations a weight of 1.
- Foundations and differentiators sub-indexes: the same calculation within each family, also out of 100.
Dimension scores are read in three bands: below 2.5 is a critical gap, 2.5 to 3.7 is developing, and 3.8 or above is a strength.
Archetypes
Two organisations with the same index can need very different programmes. The archetype places you on a two-by-two matrix of foundations against differentiators, with 55 out of 100 as the threshold on each axis.
| Archetype | Position | Typical situation | Where to focus |
|---|
Maturity stages
| Stage | Index | Typical situation |
|---|
Targets and confidence
After each dimension, you set the level you need to reach within 18 months and say how confident you are in your answers. The target turns the assessment into an agenda: a company that only needs to be competent in technology but must lead on value will get a different plan from one with the opposite ambition.
Confidence does not change the score. It flags where answers are estimates, so that the leadership team knows which results to verify before acting on them.
Priorities and roadmap
The three dimensions with the largest gap between today and your 18-month target are your priorities. When gaps are equal, the lower current score comes first; after that, foundational order applies: strategy, data, governance, operating model, value, people and technology. If no targets are set, priorities are the three lowest-scoring dimensions.
For each priority, the report gives what the score means and three actions matched to your level. The 30/60/90-day roadmap sequences these actions so that the first month mobilises, the second builds and the third embeds.
Peer benchmarks
Peer comparisons use the anonymous scores of organisations that have completed this version of the assessment. You are compared with all respondents and, separately, with organisations in your industry, size band and region. Each comparison shows the peer average per dimension and your percentile, the share of peers who scored below you.
To protect anonymity and keep averages meaningful, a comparison appears only when the group is large enough: at least 20 responses overall and at least 10 for any industry, size or region segment.
The report also includes an industry lens: the domains where AI typically creates value in your sector, common use cases, the regulation to watch and, where available, a published fact from independent research with its source.