Service · AI

Know where you stand before you spend on AI.

A fixed-scope diagnostic that grades your data, use cases, technology, team, governance, and ROI — so your first AI dollar funds the thing that moves the business. A scorecard, ranked shortlist, and roadmap you own, in a few weeks.

Fixed scope Six graded dimensions A roadmap you own

Readiness scorecard

GRADING…
DataB−
Use casesA−
TechnologyB
Team & skillsC+
GovernanceC
ROI clarityB+
EVIDENCE-BACKED FIX DATA FIRST

Illustrative grades — every real grade comes with its evidence and the gap to close.

The real problem

Why so many AI projects die before they reach production.

Because budget gets committed before anyone knows the foundation can hold the weight. The model is never the problem — the data is scattered, the use case demos well but has no measurable return, governance was never thought through.

A readiness assessment is the cheapest insurance against that: a few weeks of structured grading that tells you, before the budget is committed, exactly which gaps would have sunk the project.

60%

Of AI projects unsupported by AI-ready data will be abandoned through 2026.

Gartner, February 2025 ↗

What it grades

What the assessment grades — and what each dimension tells you.

Not a maturity quiz — a structured audit across six dimensions, each one a place AI initiatives reliably fail.

01

Data readiness

Grades the quality, access, structure, and lineage of the data your use cases would run on.

You find the data problems before development, not 5 months into a stalled build.

02

Use-case potential

Separates the AI ideas that demo well from the ones with measurable return, grading each on value versus effort.

You fund the work that pays, not the work that looks impressive in a board slide.

03

Technology & infrastructure

Assesses whether your stack — compute, integration, deployment, security — can run the use cases you have in mind, and names what has to change.

No surprise when the model is ready but nothing around it can serve it.

04

Team & skills

Grades your capacity against what adoption will demand, and maps the path — hire, partner, or upskill — for each gap.

The plan accounts for who runs it after launch — so it doesn't stall the day the consultants leave.

05

Governance & risk

Reviews your AI oversight, compliance exposure, and the guardrails your sector requires — before the first model ships.

Initiatives clear legal and risk review on the first pass instead of stalling in it.

06

ROI & prioritization

Costs each candidate — build, run, infrastructure — against projected value, and ranks the portfolio in a defensible order.

Leadership funds AI on numbers, and the first invoice is a forecast they've already seen.

First dollar Graded

60% of AI projects on un-ready data get abandoned. A few weeks of structured grading is the cheapest insurance — it tells you which gaps would sink the build before the budget is committed.

As of June 2026 · revisit quarterly

What readiness does to the odds — the measured impact.

Independent industry findings, cited as third-party evidence — not Silicon Prime's own client results.

63%

Lack the right data practices. Of organizations don't have, or aren't sure they have, the data management practices AI needs.

Gartner, February 2025 ↗

42%

Blame data readiness. Of enterprises say more than half their AI projects were delayed, underperformed, or failed because of data-readiness issues.

Fivetran, May 2025 ↗

~6%

Are AI high performers drawing more than 5% of EBIT from AI — separated from the rest by workflow redesign, not the model.

McKinsey, Nov 2025 ↗

What's delivered

What the AI readiness assessment delivers.

A bounded diagnostic with deliverables you own — not an open-ended retainer.

01

A written readiness report

Each of the six dimensions graded, with the evidence and the gaps that would put a deployment at risk — in plain language for a CFO and a board.

02

A prioritized shortlist & ROI model

Your candidate use cases ranked on value versus effort, each with build, run, and infrastructure economics modeled against projected value.

03

A build-vs-buy call per use case

For each prioritized opportunity, a scored call on building in-house versus configuring an off-the-shelf tool — on cost, control, switching risk, and time-to-value.

04

A data & infrastructure gap analysis

The concrete list of what your data and systems need before each use case can run — which our data analytics engineering team can carry out if you choose.

05

A governance & risk review

Current oversight assessed and the guardrails your sector requires, drawn from our human-led, responsible-AI practice — so governance is part of the plan, not a later scramble.

06

A phased roadmap & executive readout

The prioritized work sequenced with dependencies and milestones, plus a leadership session that aligns the room on what to fund next.

What you get when you hire us — all documented and owned by you

The written readiness scorecard across all six dimensions
A ranked use-case shortlist
A costed ROI model
A build-vs-buy call per initiative
A data & infrastructure gap analysis + governance review
A phased roadmap and an executive readout

How it runs

How the assessment runs.

The same delivery discipline behind our AI development work — one accountable lead, bounded scope, no handoff to a sales team.

STEP 01

Scope

We agree the questions to answer, the use cases on the table, and the data and systems we'll examine.

Output: a bounded engagement plan, fixed up front

STEP 02

Grade

We work through the six dimensions with your team, evidencing each grade against what a real deployment demands.

Output: a graded scorecard & a ranked shortlist

STEP 03

Report

We model the ROI, run the build-vs-buy call on each priority, sequence the roadmap, and read it out to your leadership.

Output: the full readiness report & roadmap, owned by you

STEP 04

Build first use case (optional)

Transition the top-ranked opportunity straight into a costed build plan under full work-for-hire IP — or take the roadmap to any partner.

Output: implementation, owned by your team or ours

Track record

A diagnostic from people who run AI in production.

A readiness assessment is only as good as the production reality behind the people grading you. We know from running software-critical systems which gaps sink a deployment and which are noise.

A Stanford-rooted Responsible AI lab, founded 2011, run by founder Kelvin Tran — 20+ years of production engineering. We'll tell you plainly when you're not ready, and which gap to close first.

Readiness, graded then fixed · 200+ locations · 4 yrs

For BJ's Restaurants, shipping a 200+ location operation safely and often was a readiness problem — process, quality gates, and risk controls all had to be honestly assessed first. We graded those gaps and restructured how work flowed through their team and stack, and they now ship twice a week with zero critical defects sustained across four years. The same eye is what we bring to grading whether yours is ready for AI.

Why have us grade your readiness.

01

We build what we assess. Grades come from a team that ships production AI, so "fix the data first" is an honest call — not a setup to sell you the most expensive build.

02

A bounded scope with a defined deliverable. A fixed-scope diagnostic that lands in weeks with a report you own — not an advisory engagement that bills indefinitely.

03

Responsible AI is the founding charter. Governance, model risk, and accountability are graded as first-class dimensions, drawn from our Human-Led AI practice.

04

Founder-led, one accountable lead, no lock-in. The person who scopes the assessment answers for it; the roadmap is yours to execute with any partner or with us.

Where it matters most

Where a readiness assessment matters most.

Where regulation and production risk make a wrong first move expensive.

Questions buyers ask before they commit.

What is an AI readiness assessment?+
A fixed-scope diagnostic that grades your organization across six dimensions — data, use-case potential, technology and infrastructure, team and skills, governance and risk, and ROI — against what a real AI deployment actually demands. The output is a written scorecard, a ranked use-case shortlist, an ROI model, and a phased roadmap you own. In short: it tells you where you stand and what to fund first, before you commit budget to a build.
What exactly do you deliver?+
A written readiness report in plain language, a prioritized use-case shortlist ranked by value and effort, an ROI model for the candidate opportunities, a build-vs-buy recommendation per use case, a data and infrastructure gap analysis, a governance and risk review, a phased roadmap, and an executive readout. Everything is documented and owned by you — take it to any partner or have us deliver it.
How long does it take?+
A few weeks, not months. The scope is deliberately bounded so the assessment delivers quickly — long enough to grade the six dimensions honestly against your real data and systems, short enough that it doesn't become a consulting study that outlives the decision it was meant to inform. We agree the exact timeline with you before any work starts.
How is this different from AI consulting?+
The readiness assessment is the scoped diagnostic — a bounded audit, with a fixed deliverable, that answers "are we ready, and what do we fund first?" AI consulting is the broader, ongoing advisory engagement that builds on that diagnostic to shape strategy, sequence a multi-year roadmap, and steer build-or-buy across the portfolio. Many engagements start with the assessment and continue into consulting or directly into a build; the assessment stands alone and obligates you to nothing further.
How do you grade each dimension?+
Against the requirements of a real deployment, not a generic maturity ladder. For each dimension we gather evidence with your team — data samples and lineage, system and integration constraints, current governance, the skills actually on staff — and grade it on whether it can support the specific use cases you're considering. The grade always comes with the evidence behind it and the concrete gap to close, so it's actionable rather than a number on a slide.
Do we need clean data or a defined use case first?+
No — finding those is the point. We assess your data and systems and surface the use cases as part of the engagement. If the data foundation isn't ready, identifying and sequencing that fix is one of the most valuable things the assessment produces — Gartner projects that 60% of AI projects will be abandoned through 2026 because their data isn't AI-ready (Gartner, February 2025). Starting before you have it all figured out is normal and expected.
What happens after the assessment?+
Your call, with no obligation. You own the roadmap and can act on it however you choose — with your own team, another partner, or with us. If you'd rather not re-scope with a new vendor, we can transition the top-ranked use case straight into a costed build plan, with IP ownership defined in the engagement's contract. The assessment's value doesn't depend on you hiring us to build.
How much does an AI readiness assessment cost?+
It's a fixed fee agreed before any work starts — ROI-linked, never hourly — so you know the number going in. What moves it is scope: how many use cases you're grading, how complex and scattered your data and systems are, and whether a regulated sector (HIPAA, PCI) adds a compliance review. Because it's bounded to a few weeks with a defined deliverable, it stays a fraction of the build it's meant to de-risk — the point is to stop you funding the wrong use case, given that 60% of AI projects on un-ready data are abandoned through 2026 (Gartner, February 2025). We scope and price it on a 30-minute call before you commit.

Thirty minutes · no pitch deck

Ready to know where you stand before you spend?

Tell us where you want AI to take the business — we'll grade the six dimensions honestly and hand you a scorecard, a ranked shortlist, and a roadmap you own.