AI Readiness Assessment | M.A.I. Consulting

The situation

A question has been asked that the organisation cannot answer with a figure.

A board member, a donor questionnaire or your own staff have asked where the organisation stands on AI. What exists is an impression: some people use it, nobody is certain who, and the tools in use have never been listed.

Two sector findings explain why the impression is usually wrong in the same direction. In a benchmark study of 346 nonprofits, 92% report using AI while 81% use it individually, without shared workflows source. Surveying 215 foundations and 451 nonprofits in April 2025, the Center for Effective Philanthropy reports that almost two-thirds say none or just a few of their staff have a solid understanding of AI source.

What you hold at the end

A scored position, a documented inventory, and a ranked plan for ninety days.

A score across ten dimensions from a sixty-question instrument, with your position on each and the three to address first.
An inventory of the AI tools in use, by department, with the data each one touches. Most organisations see this list for the first time.
A ranked 90-day plan: what to do, in what order, by whom, with the effort each item takes.
A written answer to the board question or donor questionnaire that prompted the work.
A baseline to re-measure against, so the next twelve months can be shown to have moved.

The report uses the vocabulary of ISO/IEC 42001:2023, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and EU AI Act Article 4, so it matches the frameworks your counterparts cite. It is a management report. We are not a certification body, it is not an audit, and it is not legal advice.

Examples

What a dimension looks like on a real report.

Each dimension carries a score, the finding behind it, and the action it implies. Four illustrations follow.

Dimension

Data protection and ethics

Illustrative finding: three of five departments have entered beneficiary information into a consumer tool with no data processing agreement; two have not. The action is a data classification table and an approved tool list, both inside the first thirty days.

Dimension

Workforce capability

Illustrative finding: fundraising uses AI weekly, finance not at all, and neither has had training built on its own tasks. The action is one general session and two department labs, with fundraising first.

Deliverable

The tool inventory

A table of every AI tool in use: name, department, purpose, account type (organisation or personal), the data class it touches, and whether it is approved. This is the artefact funders ask for most often and the one least often ready.

Deliverable

The 90-day plan

Ranked, not exhaustive. A typical first three: publish the approved tool list; run the general session; draft the clause covering beneficiary data. Each with an owner and an effort estimate.

Run the instrument before buying the service. The Extended AI Readiness Assessment is the same sixty questions, free and self-administered. The paid service differs in who answers: your staff, interviewed, with the inventory documented rather than recalled.

Three instruments, one method

The free check, the free extended assessment, and this service.

They share the same framework and differ in depth, in who answers, and in what the result can be used for. Two are free and self-administered on this site.

AI Readiness Check

Free · 28 questions · about twelve minutes · you answer, from your own impression

Freeself-administered

A score across the four competencies, a breakdown and a ranked list of what to address first, as a PDF you keep. Best used to decide whether to look further.

ScoreNo interviewsNo tool inventory

Open the check →

Extended AI Readiness Assessment

Free · 60 questions · about thirty minutes · you answer, or a small group

Freeself-administered

The full ten-dimension instrument with a standards mapping, as a PDF you keep. Best used to prepare a board or funder conversation.

Ten dimensionsStandards mappingSelf-reported

Run the extended assessment →

AI Readiness Assessment (this service)

Paid · 60 questions plus interviews · two to three weeks · your staff answer

Estimatorfixed after a 30-minute call

The same ten dimensions scored on documented evidence, plus the tool inventory, the ranked 90-day plan and the baseline for the re-score. Best used to answer a board or funder and start the work.

InterviewsTool inventory90-day planBaseline

Price it →

How we get there

Four steps over two to three weeks.

Scoping call. Which departments, which data, who to interview.
Instrument and interviews. The sixty questions completed with you, then short interviews with department leads and a sample of staff.
Tool inventory. Built from the interviews and, where you permit it, from your own account and expense records.
Report and debrief. The scored report, the inventory and the ranked plan, presented to the leadership team.

Typical duration: Two to three weeks

Price

Fixed price and fixed scope, agreed in writing.

Priced on organisation type and size, and fixed in writing after a 30-minute call. The assessment is usually the first component of a package; the estimator shows what adding a policy or training does to the total.

Price this service Back to all five services

Thirty minutes establishes whether this is the right service.

If a different one fits better, or none does yet, we will say so on the call.

Book a call Take the free readiness check