The Automation Readiness Diagnostic

Find out where your AI initiative really stands.

A 15-question, 8-minute self-assessment built on the frameworks in Designing Automated Futures. Plot one initiative on the Autonomy Decision Matrix, score your Strategy Gap risk, and get the single next step that fits.

8 minutes 15 questions Free · no account
In about eight minutes

Three answers most automation initiatives never stop to get.

01

Your quadrant

See exactly where one initiative lands on the Autonomy Decision Matrix — Hold, Question, Assist, or Automate — plotted from your own answers.

02

Your Strategy Gap Risk Score

A 0–20 read on how reactive vs. intentional your approach is — and how exposed you are to the pattern that sinks 80% of AI projects.

03

Your next step

One recommended move, scaled to where you actually are — not a generic “adopt more AI” nudge.

The Autonomy Decision Matrix

Two questions decide it: could you, and should you.

Most automation initiatives don’t fail on technology. They fail because no one asked whether the organization could deliver it — and whether it should. The diagnostic scores both, then plots your initiative live.

Hold Neither the value nor the capability case is established yet.
Question You could automate — but the value case isn’t there.
Assist High value, capability still maturing.
Automate High value, high capability.

Sample placement. Yours animates in from your own answers.

The Automation Strategy Gap

The distance between automation aspiration and execution reality.

Organizations launch into automation reactively — chasing a vision of full autonomy without first asking whether they could deliver it, whether they should, and whether the organization can absorb it. That gap is where initiatives quietly drift, budgets burn, and quality slips. The diagnostic measures how exposed you are.

80%

of AI projects fail — nearly double the rate of traditional IT efforts. RAND, 2024

How it works

From one initiative to one clear next step.

1

Name one initiative

Pick a specific AI or automation project you’re considering or already building. Not your org in the abstract — one real bet.

2

Answer 15 questions

Three short sections on strategy signals, capability, and value. Roughly eight minutes, one question at a time.

3

Watch your position plot

Your answers animate onto the Autonomy Decision Matrix and a Strategy Gap risk gauge — an interactive report, not a PDF.

4

Take the recommended step

Leave with a clear next move and a throughline to the Strategy-First AI Workshop when that’s the right call.

Pick one initiative. Get clarity in eight minutes.

Your answers stay on your device. Re-take quarterly to track how your readiness drifts.

Start the diagnostic