# AI readiness

> Whether a business has the data, the process discipline, the decision rights and the skills for an AI investment to pay back, assessed before the money is committed rather than after.

Source: https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/ai-readiness/

## Terms of Trade · Edition 1: The PE deck

Definition

Whether a business has the data, the process discipline, the decision rights and the skills for an AI investment to pay back, assessed before the money is committed rather than after. It is a property of the operating model, not of the technology being bought.

Field note

AI readiness is the uncomfortable conversation your teams are not having with the board sponsor who promised investors an AI-enabled workforce by the end of next quarter. The workforce has heard about the promise; the sponsor has not yet heard about the data.

Board question

Which of the five foundations scored lowest when we last assessed them, and who in this room has seen the score?

Applied through

[The Barking Cat AI Diagnostic](https://barkingcat.ai/the-barking-cat-ai-diagnostic/), five scored foundations and the one binding constraint holding the rest back; [the thirty-minute self-assessment](https://barkingcat.ai/the-barking-cat-ai-diagnostic/assessment/) is the first honest version of the conversation.

Related terms
- [AI theatre](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/ai-theatre/)
- [LLM](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/llm/)
- [Agentic commerce](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/agentic-commerce/)
- [Binding constraint](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/binding-constraint/)

## Contact

steve@barkingcat.ai

Barking Cat Advisory Limited. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17338003.