What is an AI Readiness Assessment?
An AI readiness assessment evaluates whether a company (or group of portfolio companies) is prepared to deploy AI tools effectively, and identifies where AI can create the most value. For PE firms, this is increasingly a core part of the value creation toolkit — AI-driven automation and intelligence can improve margins, accelerate growth, and enhance exit multiples.
The key insight is that AI readiness is not about technology sophistication. It is about three practical gates: (1) does the company have clean data for the use case, (2) is there a management team champion who will own implementation, and (3) can you pilot in 30 days with off-the-shelf tooling. Companies that pass all three gates are “Go”; companies that fail any gate are “Wait” until the blocker is resolved.
Command
/ai-readiness [path to quarterly materials folder, or company names]
ai-readiness skill and scans portfolio companies for AI leverage.
With folder
With company list
Without input
/ai-readiness /path/to/q3-portfolio-materials/
/ai-readiness Acme Industrial, Beta Software, Gamma Services
Claude will ask which companies to include and how to access their materials. What It Produces
Per-Company Go/Wait Gate based on data availability, management ownership, and pilot feasibility.
Ranked Opportunity Stack — every leverage point from every company ranked by dollar impact, speed to value, and probability.
Portfolio Replays — playbooks that work at one company and can be deployed at others.
Output Table:
| Rank | Company | Opportunity | Est. EBITDA ($) | Months to Value | Gate | First Step |
|---|
| 1 | | | | | Go | |
| 2 | | | | | Go | |
| 3 | | | | | Wait — [blocker] | |
Rank by dollars, not excitement. A boring AP automation saving $400k beats a flashy chatbot every time. Off-the-shelf tooling first — custom builds are slow and fragile for companies without engineering depth.
How to Customize
Edit the ai-readiness skill to adjust the gate questions, add industry-specific AI opportunity patterns, or include your firm’s preferred AI vendor list.
See the AI Readiness skill for the full framework, opportunity pattern library, and replay identification methodology.
