Some owners know exactly which task they want automated. Others know their team is buried in manual work but cannot say which part to fix first, or whether AI is the right tool at all. The AI readiness assessment is for the second group. It is a paid, two-week project that ends with a clear plan and a fixed quote, and its full fee of $3,199 is credited to the build if you go ahead.
This post explains what happens in those two weeks, what you get at the end, who it is for and who should skip it. Prices were last reviewed on October 29, 2026.
Why a paid assessment instead of a free call
A free call is good for one question: is this worth talking about? We offer one, along with a free automation audit where you describe one task and get one idea back. But a 30-minute call cannot map a whole office. It cannot look at your actual data, test whether your systems allow the connections you need, or put a real price on five different options.
The assessment does that work. It takes real hours, so it is paid. Because the fee is credited to the build, the owners who go ahead pay nothing extra for the planning. The owners who do not go ahead still leave with a plan they can hand to anyone.
Week one: mapping the work
The first week is about understanding how work actually moves through your business.
- A kickoff call with you and the people who do the work every day.
- A walkthrough of each recurring task: where it starts, which tools it touches, who approves what, and where it gets stuck.
- A look at the systems involved, including which ones have usable APIs, what plan you are on, and what the vendor allows.
- A count of volumes: how many leads, invoices, appointments, emails or documents each task handles in a normal week.
We ask for read-only access where we need it, and nothing gets changed in your systems during the assessment.
Week two: ranking and pricing
The second week turns the map into decisions.
- 1Candidate list. Every task that could be automated, with the hours it takes today and a plain estimate of what automation would save.
- 2Fit check. For each task, whether it needs a simple workflow, an AI agent, a custom tool, or nothing at all. Some tasks are better fixed with a checklist or a setting in a tool you already own, and we say so.
- 3Risk notes. Sensitive data, approval steps, and anything that needs a vendor agreement before work can start.
- 4Order of work. Which task to do first, based on hours saved, risk and cost, not on which one is most interesting.
- 5Fixed quotes. A fixed price for the first build and a range for the rest, using the same floors as the pricing page.
Tell us your team size and main systems and we'll say whether the assessment is worth it for you.
What you get at the end
You get a written report and a one-hour review call. The report has the process map, the ranked list, the fit check and risk notes for each task, the recommended first project, and the fixed quote. It is written for owners, not engineers, so you can share it with a partner, an office manager or your accountant.
The report is yours. If you decide to build with another firm or with your own team, you can use it.
How the credit works
If you go ahead with a build within the quoted terms, the full $3,199 comes off that build's price. A $9,000 first build becomes $5,801 to pay. The credit applies to the build quoted in the report, so the planning money goes straight into the work.
The assessment itself is a $3,199 invoice, which falls in the $3,000 to under $5,000 band of our payment schedule: 25% at the start, 50% midway and 25% at the review call. The full rules are in how automation pricing and payment work.
Who it is for
- Owners of offices with 5 to 50 people where several tasks feel manual and nobody has time to sort out which matters most.
- Teams that tried a tool or two and are not sure why it did not stick.
- Practices with patient or client data who need to know what is allowed before anything gets built.
- Anyone about to hire an extra admin person who wants to check whether part of that job can be automated first.
Who should skip it
If you already know the task, skip the assessment and ask for a quote on that task directly. If your budget is under $5,000 in total, start with the free audit or the half-day planning workshop, which costs less and gives your team a shortlist of three automations. If you only want a feel for costs, read the AI agent cost guide first.
How it compares with other paid first steps
Paid first steps are common across the industry, and prices vary a lot. Some firms charge under $300 for a short call with a written summary. Others charge around $1,000 for a scoping session. Full assessments that are credited to the build tend to cost between $3,000 and $4,000. Ours sits at the lower end of that last group, and unlike a short call, it ends with a fixed quote you can act on.
What we need from you
About three hours of your time across the two weeks, an hour or two with each person who does the work, read-only access to the main systems, and a sample of real records with anything sensitive removed or masked. That is enough to map most small businesses.
How to book it
Describe your business and the work that feels heaviest in the form below. We reply within one business day with a start date and the access we will need. You work directly with Shariq, the founder, for the whole assessment, and the person who writes the report is the person who would build the first project.
