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AI readiness checklist: twelve questions before you spend
An AI readiness checklist is a list of questions you can answer without a vendor in the room. If you need someone to interpret the answers, that is an audit, not a checkbox.
Twelve questions
Which host do you already pay? Who approves a send, a publish, or a write to a customer record? What must never change? Which line of work is first: content, growth, or the record? Do you need a fourth OS you cannot name yet?
Can you point at one repeated job? Who owns the model bill? Are you about to buy tokens from a second vendor? Do you have a written rule for tools that can write? Can a new person find the last decision? Would you notice if an agent invented a metric? Who is allowed to install?
What the answers are for
If the host is clear and the first line is Content, Growth, or Librarian, install. If the line is something else, the answers are the brief for on demand. An AI readiness assessment sold as a score is optional. The questions are not.
This is not a legal review and not a substitute for your own security process. AI governance, on this product, is the human gate: a named person approves before anything leaves. That is a product rule, not a published legal calendar.
Questions
Is this an AI audit?
No. It is a checklist. An audit is the on-demand conversation after the gap is specific.
Do you publish a readiness score?
No. A score without your books is a costume.