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Guide 01 · ~6 min read · July 2026

What an AI adoption assessment looks like.

"Assessment" is a word consultants hide behind, so let's take the mystery out of it. This is exactly what happens when you buy our $2,000 AI Adoption Assessment — the working session, the scoring, the documents you walk away with, and what happens after. No sales pitch until the very end, and even that one is optional.

First, the basics: what it is and what it costs

The assessment is a fixed-price engagement: $2,000, delivered in two to three weeks. The price is published, so there's no discovery-call dance to find out what you'll pay. The purpose is to answer one question honestly: where — if anywhere — would AI actually earn its keep in your business?

Note the "if anywhere." Sometimes the honest answer for a workflow is "don't automate this." You'll get that answer too, because a roadmap padded with weak ideas isn't worth the paper.

The working session

The core of the assessment is time with your people: two to four short interviews plus one working session. Typically that means an executive sponsor, two or three of the people who actually do the work, and whoever looks after your tools or IT. Nobody needs to prepare a deck. We're not there to hear how work is supposed to happen — we're there to watch how it actually happens: where information gets retyped, where requests pile up, where the same question gets answered for the tenth time this month.

Expect questions like: "Walk me through what happens when a quote request comes in." "Where does that spreadsheet live, and who updates it?" "What happens when you're on vacation?" Boring questions on purpose — the boring parts of a business are usually where AI pays for itself.

What gets scored

After the interviews, we score your business on five dimensions. This becomes your readiness score — not a vanity number, but a map of what would help or block an AI rollout:

  • Data hygiene. Is your information findable, consistent, and reasonably clean? AI built on messy data produces confident-sounding messes.
  • Process clarity. Do your workflows have defined steps, or does everything live in one person's head? You can't automate what you can't describe.
  • Tooling coverage. What you already own — Microsoft 365, your CRM, your accounting software — and how much of the opportunity it covers before anything custom gets built.
  • Team literacy. How comfortable your people are with the tools they have. Low literacy doesn't block a project; it just means training belongs in the plan.
  • Governance & security. Whether there are rules for what data can go into which tools. Most small businesses score lowest here — that's normal, and fixable.

Each candidate opportunity also gets scored on its own merits: impact on hours or revenue, effort to build and maintain, risk and data sensitivity, and fit with your existing stack. That's how a long wish-list becomes a short ranked list.

What the roadmap contains

The deliverable is a readout — 60 to 90 minutes, plain English — plus four documents your team can actually use:

  • Top AI opportunities, ranked — sorted by impact, effort, and risk, with clear notes on what's realistic now versus later, and a recommended starting point.
  • A 30/60/90-day plan — what to do first, next, and last, with owners, timelines, and the decision points where you can pause or change course.
  • Simple rules for safe AI use — what data can go where, do-and-don't guidance for staff, and a short incident checklist. This is the governance gap, closed.
  • A rollout & training plan — how to get from "we have a plan" to "people actually use this," because most AI projects fail at the habits stage, not the technology stage.

The funding-eligibility check

The assessment also includes a funding-eligibility check. Atlantic Canada currently has real programs for this kind of work — ACOA's Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative, CyberSecure NB in New Brunswick, and provincial digital-adoption supports — and we check which ones your project could fit and what the paperwork involves. No approval is ever guaranteed (be wary of anyone who promises otherwise), but you'll know your options before committing to anything bigger. The current programs, with figures and sources, are on our grants & funding page.

What happens after

Here's the part that surprises people: you can stop there. You own the roadmap outright. You can hand it to your internal team, take it to another vendor, or sit on it for six months — it's written to stand on its own either way, with enough detail that whoever executes it doesn't need us in the room.

If you do want help executing, the same ladder continues at published prices: team training at $1,200–2,000 per session, custom builds typically $8,000–25,000. But the assessment is designed to be worth $2,000 on its own, not to be a paid sales meeting.

Is it right for everyone? Honestly, no. If you already know exactly what you want built, a process review is the more direct entry point. And if you're a two-person shop with simple workflows, a single training session may get you most of the value for less. Say so on the call and we'll point you at the cheaper option.
The optional sales pitch

Sound like a useful two weeks?

Start with a 15-minute fit call — if the assessment isn't the right entry point for you, we'll say which one is. We reply within 1 business day.

Start with the Assessment — $2,000 fixed Book a 15-min Fit Call
Responds within 1 business day Moncton, NB · serving Atlantic Canada You own the roadmap either way