AI Readiness Assessment: a written roadmap in 2 weeks
Hire me for two weeks. I'll pay close attention to your specific business (your workflows, your team, your tools) and hand you a written AI roadmap on day 14.
No frameworks. No decks. No 90-day "discovery phase." Just a plan you can execute yourself or hand back to me.
Get started asks for your email first, then opens secure checkout. Prefer an invoice? Send an inquiry and I'll reply within 24 hours.
Justin McKelvey
I build AI that does real work · Austin, TX
Quick Answer
An AI Readiness Assessment is a 2-week structured engagement that produces a written AI roadmap for your specific business. The deliverable is a 15 to 25 page document covering a workflow audit, an opportunity map ranked by ROI, tool recommendations, a 30-60-90 day implementation plan, and a growth and demand map showing where your next customers actually come from. My version costs a flat $2,500, is capped at 2 to 3 engagements per month, and credits the full fee against any follow-on build work within 90 days. No hourly billing, no 6-month "discovery phase."
Author: Justin McKelvey, fractional CTO · 15+ years shipping products · Updated October 2026
Free first step
Not ready to pay for an assessment? Score yourself free.
The AI Readiness Checklist: 30 yes/no questions, about 3 minutes, no email needed to answer. It's the same diagnostic I start every Assessment with.
What an AI Readiness Assessment actually is
An AI Readiness Assessment is a structured, time-boxed engagement where someone who's been shipping ML and AI in production since before LLMs were a thing looks at your specific business and tells you what to do, in writing.
My version is two weeks. No hourly billing, no expanding scope. You walk away with a workflow audit, a ranked list of AI opportunities, tool recommendations specific to your stack, and a 30-60-90 day plan.
It's not a generic consulting product. I take 2-3 of these per month so each one gets real attention.
The 2-Week Process
Week 1 · Discovery
2-3 calls with you and key team members. I audit your current workflows, your existing AI usage (or lack of it), the tools you're already paying for, and where the friction lives. I look at how your team actually works, not how the org chart says they work.
Week 2 · Synthesis & Roadmap
I rank the AI opportunities I found by impact and effort, write the roadmap, and pick specific tools. The deliverable is a 15 to 25 page document, not a slide deck. Real recommendations with real numbers.
Day 14 · Walkthrough Call
1-hour call where I walk you through the roadmap, answer questions, and explain the priorities. After the call you have everything you need to execute internally, or hire me to build the first one or two recommendations.
What's in the deliverable
Workflow Audit
Where your team is spending time, where the friction is, and where AI can actually move the needle. Honest, not flattering.
AI Opportunity Map
Every realistic AI opportunity in your business, ranked by impact and effort. Usually 8-12 candidates. We pick the top 3 to focus on.
Tool Recommendations
Specific to your stack and budget. Includes what to use, what to skip, and what's overpriced. No affiliate links, no kickbacks.
30-60-90 Day Plan
Sequenced implementation plan with owners, milestones, and rough effort estimates. You could hand this to your team Monday morning.
Growth & Demand Map
Where your next customers actually come from. I point the same demand-research machine I run on my own businesses at your market: which competitors get attention and through which channels, what your buyers actually search for and ask AI assistants, and which customer segment is worth the most to you. Most assessments stop at saving you hours. This is the part aimed at making you money.
Free calculator
Want to sanity-check the math first?
Run one workflow through the free AI ROI calculator (hours saved, loaded rate, monthly spend) and see the day-90 ROI live. The Assessment runs that same math across your whole business.
Open the AI ROI calculatorThis is for you if
- ▶You run a $1M-$50M business and AI feels urgent but unclear
- ▶Your team is using ChatGPT in a tab and you have no system
- ▶You want a clear plan in two weeks, not a six-month "transformation"
- ▶You'd rather pay an operator than another firm with junior consultants
This isn't for you if
- ▶You want a 90-day discovery phase with weekly status calls
- ▶You're under $1M revenue (the math doesn't work)
- ▶You're looking for AI ethics governance theater
- ▶You haven't decided AI is real yet
I run this business on the system I install.
This site is not a client's. It is my own business, and the automated content system I built runs it, with me approving every post. Here is what that did in Google, from Search Console, as of October 3, 2026.
The Assessment's job is to find where AI pays off in your business. This is what it looks like when it does in mine.
Search Console clicks in the 28 days to October 2
Clicks on September 29, the best day on record
Times this site showed up in Google in those 28 days
Published posts, written by the system and approved by me
Google Search Console and this site's live sitemap, read October 3, 2026. When I update the date, I update the numbers.
AI readiness assessment: frequently asked questions
- What is an AI readiness assessment?
- An AI readiness assessment is a structured look at your workflows, tools, and team that ends in a written plan for where AI will pay off in your business. My version is a 2-week engagement that produces a workflow audit, an opportunity map ranked by impact and effort, tool recommendations, and a 30-60-90 day plan.
- Is there a free AI readiness assessment?
- Yes, a self-serve one. The free AI Readiness Checklist is 30 yes/no questions across data, workflows, team, governance, and execution, and takes about 3 minutes. You can answer it without an email; leave one and your score and recommendation are saved. The paid Assessment is the done-for-you version: two weeks of my attention on your specific business and a written roadmap.
- How long does an AI readiness assessment take?
- Two weeks from kickoff. Week 1 is discovery: I talk with you and key team members, audit your workflows, and map your current AI use. Week 2 is synthesis: I rank the opportunities, write the roadmap, and walk you through it on a 1-hour call. You get the deliverable on day 14.
- How much does an AI readiness assessment cost?
- $2,500 flat. No hourly billing, no scope creep. If you hire me within 90 days to build any of the recommendations, the full $2,500 is credited against that work, so it effectively becomes a deposit. If we don't keep working together, you keep the roadmap.
- What's in the deliverable?
- A written AI roadmap covering: (1) a workflow audit with the bottlenecks named, (2) AI opportunities ranked by impact and effort, (3) tool recommendations specific to your stack, (4) governance and data-handling guidance, (5) a 30-60-90 day plan you can run internally or hand back to me, and (6) a growth and demand map: which competitors in your market get customer attention and through which channels, and which customer segments are worth the most to you. Typically 15 to 25 pages, not a slide deck.
- Who is this for?
- Owners and leaders of $1M to $50M businesses whose team uses ChatGPT here and there with no system, and who want a clear plan in two weeks, not a six-month transformation. It's not a fit for businesses under $1M, for anyone who wants a 90-day discovery phase, or for governance theater.
- How is this different from a free strategy call?
- The free 30-minute call is a gut-check on fit. The Assessment is two weeks of focused work with a written deliverable. Free call is scoping; the Assessment is an execution-ready plan. Most people start with the call.
- Do you sign NDAs?
- Yes. I'm happy to sign your standard NDA before kickoff, or I'll send a mutual one if you don't have your own.
- How do I pay?
- Self-serve Stripe checkout from this page: your email first, then secure checkout, and nothing is charged until payment completes. Or I can invoice through Stripe, Net-7, and work starts after payment is received.
- What's the catch?
- There isn't one. The scope is locked so neither of us gets weird about it. I take 2 to 3 of these a month, so the attention you get is real.
“Justin doesn't just write code; he thinks like a CEO. He understands the business impact of every technical decision, which is rare in this industry.”
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