AI Readiness Assessment
Most failed AI initiatives die in months 3–6, after the budget’s been spent. Our AI Readiness Assessment is a focused 5-day diagnostic that surfaces the kills early. We assess your data foundations (is your data actually usable, or just present?), governance posture (Privacy Act 1988, APP, sector regulators like APRA / AHPRA / ASIC depending on your industry), talent gaps (do you have or can you hire the people who can run AI in production?), and ROI hypotheses (which use cases will pay back inside 12 months, which are 3-year bets). The deliverable is a board-ready report with a prioritised roadmap, capability gap matrix, and quantified risks. Comes with an optional 4-week pilot scoping sprint if the diagnostic clears.
What you get
Real examples
Pre-investment board diagnostic
Illustrative scenario: a 200-person Australian insurer’s board is considering a $8M AI program. The 5-day assessment surfaces that data quality and model risk governance will burn 12 months of the program before any model ships — rescoping the investment and timeline accordingly.
Post-acquisition AI strategy
Illustrative scenario: a Melbourne-headquartered group has just acquired three product companies and needs a unified AI roadmap. The assessment maps each company’s AI maturity, identifies which initiatives consolidate vs. stay independent, and produces a 24-month integration plan.
Common questions
Why 5 days — isn’t that too short?
Five working days of focused diagnostic by senior consultants, not five elapsed days of a junior consultant. The output is targeted enough to be decision-grade: should we invest, where do we need to fix things first, and what’s the priority. Deeper architecture work happens in the follow-on engagements.
Who do we need to make available?
CTO/Head of Engineering, Head of Data, a business sponsor (typically a CFO or COO), and access to one representative business-unit leader. Roughly two hours per person across the week. Plus read-only access to data inventories and governance docs.
What does the deliverable look like?
A 25–40 page board-ready report covering the readiness matrix (data, talent, governance, ROI), prioritised use-case roadmap, capability gap analysis with hire/partner/defer recommendations, and a quantified risk register. Plus a 60-minute findings walkthrough with your exec team.
What if we’re not ready?
Then you’ve saved the cost of failing publicly. The report will tell you exactly what to fix first (usually data foundations or a specific governance gap) and on what timeline. We can scope a foundational engagement directly out of the assessment if that’s the right next step.
How is this different from a generic strategy consultancy’s AI offering?
Horizon Labs delivers AI in production, not slides. The assessment is run by the people who would actually build the systems if you proceeded — so the readiness call reflects what implementation will require, not a generic maturity model.
Ready to get started?
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