How much does an AI readiness audit cost, and what should you get?

The short answer

Price depends on scope: how many teams and processes are reviewed, how many interviews, and whether the audit includes cost estimates and a build plan. A focused audit for a small business, covering the main workflows with a written 90-day roadmap, commonly lands in the low thousands. Enterprise assessments across many departments cost far more. Ours, the AI Readiness Audit, is $2,500, and the fee is credited toward any build you book within 60 days.

What a good audit includes

• A map of where the time goes: the repetitive tasks, hand-offs and bottlenecks, found by talking to the people who do the work.
• A ranked list of opportunities, each with a rough cost, the time or money it saves, and a confidence level.
• What not to do. An honest audit rules out ideas that aren't worth it yet.
• Data and risk notes: what's sensitive, what needs a policy, what your current tools already do.
• A 90-day roadmap with a first project small enough to prove value quickly.
• A document you keep, usable by any vendor or your own team, not just the auditor.

Red flags

• The "audit" is free and every recommendation is the vendor's own product.
• No one talks to the staff who actually do the work.
• The deliverable is a slide deck of AI trends rather than your processes.
• No numbers: no estimated hours saved, costs or payback.

Do you need an audit at all?

Not always. If you already know the one task you want to automate, skip the audit and scope that project directly. A 1-hour strategy session ($350) is often enough to sanity-check the idea. An audit earns its cost when you know AI should help but not where to start, or when several people in the business have different ideas and you need one plan.