Free guide & PDF · For solo founders & small businesses

Small Business
AI Readiness Checklist

Find where AI could help your business—and choose a useful place to start.

Work through your repetitive tasks, score your readiness, and decide what is worth tackling first. Use it on your own or with the people who help run your business.

  • Spot work you repeat every week
  • Score your readiness across six areas
  • Compare potential time savings with setup effort
  • Plan your first 90 days

Read the checklist on this page · No email needed to read

7-page printable PDF · Set aside about 30 minutes · No payment required

Created by Evan Ross, founder of Naveron and Celltronix.

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Your small business
AI readiness checklist.

AI readiness means having a clear task, usable information, and a way to check the result. You do not need a technical team to start. You do need to know what a useful result looks like.

For each question below, write ready, needs work, or not sure. Add one concrete example from your business. This online guide complements the printable worksheet; it is a planning exercise, not a certification.

01 / A clear task

What work do you want to improve?

Choose something you repeat: drafting quote follow-ups, summarizing meeting notes, or turning service details into a first draft.

  • Can you describe the task in one sentence?
  • Do you know how often you do it and how long it takes?
  • Can you show an example of a good result?

Try this: “Draft a follow-up for a quote I sent yesterday, ready for me to review.”

02 / Useful information

Is the information easy to find?

Gather the facts the task depends on: current services, prices, approved answers, and the relevant customer request.

  • Is there one current version of those facts?
  • Can you find it without searching several inboxes?
  • Can you test with made-up or non-sensitive examples first?

If this needs work: Create one short reference document before connecting more tools.

03 / A repeatable process

Can you explain the steps?

Write down what starts the task, what happens next, and when it is finished. Separate routine work from exceptions.

  • What information must be present before starting?
  • Which steps follow a fixed rule?
  • What should happen when information is missing?

Example: A quote request arrives, you check the details, draft a response, and approve it before sending.

04 / Appropriate access

What can the tool see and do?

Decide whether you need help drafting, reading information, or taking an action. Start with the access needed for that specific task.

  • Have you checked how the chosen tool handles your information?
  • Will it draft a message or actually send it?
  • Can you remove its access and return to the manual process?

First test: Review drafts yourself before enabling customer-facing actions.

05 / Time and ownership

Who will make it work?

If you work alone, you are the owner of the process. Set aside time for setup, learning, and checking results.

  • Who will review the output and fix mistakes?
  • What setup and monthly budget can you commit?
  • Who updates the reference information when the business changes?

If this needs work: Keep the first project small enough to manage alongside your normal workload.

06 / A measurable result

How will you decide whether to keep it?

Compare the new process with how you work today. Include the time spent reviewing and correcting the output.

  • Have you recorded a baseline for the task?
  • What counts as an acceptable result?
  • When will you review whether the test is worth continuing?

Example: Compare total drafting and review time across ten similar inquiries. Record corrections as well as time.

Turn your answers into
one useful next step.

If the task, source information, and review process are clear, choose a small supervised test. If those are unclear, organize them first. A high total score should never override a missing fact or an action you cannot check.

For a solo founder, the first project could be a weekly summary from your own notes. For a service business, it might be a draft reply using approved service information. For recurring reminders with fixed wording and timing, a standard automation may be all you need.

Use our AI readiness assessment template to record the gaps, or follow the first AI project guide to plan a two-week trial.

A look inside

From a scattered week
to a clearer next step.

01 / Operations audit

Where does the time go?

Check recurring tasks such as manual reporting, scheduling, invoicing, and lead follow-up.

Example: Does following up with a lead depend on you remembering to send the next email?

02 / Readiness scorecard

What needs to be in place?

Score six areas including organized data, documented processes, connected tools, capacity, and budget.

03 / Prioritization matrix

What is worth trying first?

List three to five tasks. Compare estimated time savings with complexity to find a manageable first project.

04 / 90-day roadmap

How do you put it to work?

Use the staged roadmap to establish a baseline, try a first improvement, and review what changed.

Before you download.

Is this useful if I work on my own?

Yes. Where the guide mentions a team, think about your own capacity and anyone who supports you. Start with a task you already do regularly.

Do I need to know how to use AI?

No. This is a planning worksheet. You can identify a useful task before choosing software or learning how to set it up.

Will this tell me exactly how much time AI will save?

No. The matrix helps estimate and prioritize opportunities. Actual results depend on the task, the tools, and how you implement them.

Can Naveron help me act on the results?

Yes. We can help choose and set up a personal assistant, improve customer follow-up, build an owner dashboard, or work through practical AI tasks with you. Tell us what you found.