Week one checkpoint: your honest AI readiness scorecard

Readiness isn't whether you've launched a chatbot. It's whether your business can absorb change without breaking trust, compliance, or cash flow. This scorecard strips vanity metrics and forces honesty — the precondition for useful next steps.

Rate each dimension from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong). Visibility: do you know which AI tools and workflows are already in use? Customer signal: can you name three expectation shifts from the last quarter? Decision speed: can you approve a bounded experiment in under a week? Data discipline: do you know what must never leave your environment? Outcome tracking: do adaptations link to numbers, not stories? Team narrative: can everyone explain your direction without fear?

Scoring is a team exercise, not a founder monologue. Include someone from sales, operations, and at least one skeptic. Disagreement on scores is valuable data — it shows where communication or governance is thin.

Interpret results without shame. Scores of 1–2 are common for growing META businesses with honest leadership. The mistake is pretending you're a 4 because you purchased subscriptions. Low scores with accurate labels convert into a prioritized 30-day plan faster than inflated self-assessment.

Carry forward three commitments from week one: one customer-facing improvement to test, one internal visibility action (inventory shadow AI or document data rules), and one communication to the team that names adaptation as a business priority — not an IT side project. Week two moves from disruption awareness to diagnosis. Bring this scorecard with you.