The five-minute AI check: what it tells you, and what it doesn't

Most conversations we have with a business start the same way. Somebody has bought a few AI subscriptions, or is about to, and nobody can say plainly where the business is with it. Are we behind? Are we wasting money? Is AI even the right answer for us?

So we built a short check that answers those questions in five minutes. It's free, it's on the site, and this is an honest account of what it does and what it doesn't.

What it is

Twenty questions about the business as it is today, not as you'd like it to be. Why you want AI, who's sponsoring it, how staff feel, what the repeat work looks like, what you pay for, whether anyone checks the output, whether there's a written rule, and whether anyone could say what changed since AI came in. Five minutes if you're honest. Longer if you argue with yourself.

The questions come from the diagnostics we run with clients. I've stripped out the internal method and kept the questions that split businesses most cleanly.

What you get back

A page, and the same result by email. It places the business in one of six situations: starting out, invested with no visible return, using AI with nothing around it, ahead of most, ready to build, or wanting to learn first. Each comes with a plain account of what that means and what tends to happen if nothing changes.

Then a level, one to five, for how AI actually gets used day to day. Most businesses are at one or two and don't know three to five exist. That's normal, no judgement.

Then six signals, red, amber or green: direction, people, work, tools, control and measurement. Each has a one-line read and a steer.

Then the bit I'd argue is worth the five minutes on its own: what stood out. Short notes triggered by specific answers. If you told us nobody knows what the training setting does, it explains it. If you told us client data goes into free tools, it says so plainly. If one keen person is carrying the whole thing, it names the risk.

And one small thing to do this week. Deliberately boring. Time a task by hand, write half a page, list the subscriptions. The boring stuff is what works.

What it doesn't do

It isn't a diagnostic. A real one takes two or three days with interviews, documents, spend data and a scorecard across seven dimensions. Twenty multiple-choice questions can't do that, and I'd be suspicious of anything that claimed to. What the check does is tell you which kind of help you probably need, and give you enough to act on before you talk to anyone. Including us.

It also won't flatter you. If you answer honestly and the business runs on judgement and relationships with little repeat work, it will tell you AI may not be your answer yet. That's a real result. Plenty of businesses spend a year finding it out the expensive way.

The recommendation at the end

Yes, it recommends a next step, and yes, some of those are things we sell. A readiness diagnostic if you're starting out. A performance diagnostic if you're paying and can't see the return. Future-proofing if AI is working and nothing is holding it in place. A workshop if the team needs to learn first. Guide prices are on the result, because I'd rather you knew before you got in touch than after.

For businesses under twenty people it points you to the free route instead: Prompting Path and a short workshop. Our diagnostics are built for twenty people and up, and I'd rather say that than sell something that doesn't fit.

And one for you, not the business

There's a two-minute version for individuals. Eight questions about how you actually worked with AI last week. It gives you a level, an archetype (I'm told people quite like being The Delegator), and the three habits that decide whether AI makes your work better or only faster: checking, challenging and defending. Plus a 30-day path to the next level, which lines up with Prompting Path if you want it done for you.

On your data

You give an email at the end to see the result. We send one email with the full result and nothing else, unless you tick the newsletter box. UK GDPR, no selling, no sharing, and your company name stays out of the email entirely. Answers are kept so we can see which situations come up most, which shapes what we write next.

Try it and tell me

If you run a business and have five minutes, run the check and tell me whether the result felt fair. That's the feedback I want most. If the next step it suggests looks right, book a call. If it looks wrong, tell me that too. It will make the check better.