On this page
In brief
- A credible assessment produces four things: a validated map, a score for every step, a measured baseline and a designed test for each candidate.
- Six questions help you judge an assessment before you commission it, whether you buy it in or run it yourself.
- The cheapest rungs (eliminate, standardise and integrate) often carry the most realisable benefit, with no AI required.
Why the evidence matters
The evidence attached to each recommendation is where the value sits. Many capable advisers can produce a list of things that might be automated. The harder task, and the useful one, is a list a Chief Operating Officer can take to a board, explain under questioning, and be measured against a year later.
Opportunity and readiness assessments answer different questions
The two are often confused, so it helps to be clear which one you need.
| Aspect | Readiness assessment | Opportunity assessment |
|---|---|---|
| What it scores | The organisation: data quality, skills, governance and culture | The work itself |
| What it produces | A maturity rating | A ranked list of specific candidates |
| The question it answers | "Could we?" | "What, in which order, and worth how much?" |
Readiness work has its place, usually earlier and usually once. A maturity score of 2.7 out of 5 describes the organisation, while a ranked list tells a team what to do on Monday. For a firm that has already committed budget, the opportunity question is typically the next one to answer.
Six questions that show a rigorous assessment
Whether you commission this externally or run it yourself, these questions are most useful before you start.
- Where does the map come from?A map captured from the people who do the work reflects actual practice. Maps drawn from procedure documents tend to inherit the gap between documented and actual practice, which is often where the opportunity sits.
- Is the scoring method published?Being able to inspect the factors and their weights before you commit is what lets you challenge the output afterwards.
- Does every recommendation carry a control pattern?In a regulated process, a recommendation to automate is complete when it includes the approval points, sampling rate and audit trail.
- Is there a baseline?Ask what will be measured, when, and by whom, and what the confidence level is on each figure.
- What does it recommend leaving alone?Clear "leave this alone" findings are a quality signal. They show the method has been applied with care to every process.
- What happens to the map afterwards?A live map keeps pace as the work changes. A PDF records a single moment of something that keeps moving.
Why the cheapest rungs come first
A good assessment places each step on a ladder of options, with more choices than automate or leave. The lower rungs of eliminate, standardise and integrate often carry more realisable benefit than the AI rungs, at a fraction of the cost and risk.
This matters commercially as well as methodologically. Removing a step that adds no value is the cheapest improvement available. Automating that same step means paying to build it, paying to run it, and making a redundant activity permanent, which is the most expensive mistake in this field.
Expect a good assessment to show that a meaningful share of the opportunity needs no AI at all. That finding is a reassuring sign of a careful method. See the full disposition ladder.
What it typically costs
For a firm of 100 to 2,000 staff, covering one business area of ten to fifteen processes over four weeks, a fixed fee in the high teens to mid twenties of thousands of pounds is a fair market range.
A consultancy running the same scope over six to eight weeks at day rates will typically land between £60,000 and £150,000, with the extra spend usually going on organisational analysis. Knowing both ranges makes it easier to compare proposals with confidence.