AI governance and readiness audit
For leadership teams whose AI usage has outgrown their AI policy.
Most AI initiatives in mid-market businesses stall on governance, not on the model. We map where AI sits in your functions today, where it is leaking spend, and where it is exposed, then hand you a board-ready plan and a structure your team can run.
The governance gap
The pattern we keep seeing
Leadership teams ask three questions about AI:
- How do we build an AI culture that actually shows up in the work?
- What is the ROI on our AI spend?
- How are we governing it?
Most teams cannot answer any of the three with evidence. AI usage has spread across functions through individual subscriptions, shadow tools and embedded features in existing software. Policy has not kept up. Boards are starting to ask. Auditors are starting to ask. The cost of that gap is no longer theoretical.
Some teams are running ahead with AI. Others have not started. No shared view of what good usage looks like or how to spread it.
Multiple licenses across teams. Tools licensed for whole departments and used by three people. No way to see total AI spend or what it produced.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, copilot tools, embedded AI features across finance, marketing, HR, operations. No central inventory, no usage policy, no owner.
When AI gets something wrong in a workflow, no one owns the correction, the audit trail or the rollback.
Deliverables
What you get
Two artifacts, both designed to be used immediately.
Board-ready report
Four pages, designed to brief the board.
- Cross-functional AI usage map across all functions
- Governance gap and material risk findings
- Three priorities for the next 90 days, ranked, with named owners
- Quantified spend leakage and recommended reinvestment
Internal playbook
For the team that owns AI from week five.
- AI usage policy your team can apply on Monday
- Governance framework with named owners and review cadence
- 90 day roadmap with milestones the board can track
How it runs
The four weeks
A fixed scope, a defined cadence, and a clear handover.
Function head interviews, tool inventory, governance review across all functions.
Two or three functions go deeper, with workflow walkthroughs and operating-team sessions.
Policy, governance framework and 90 day roadmap.
Board readout and team handover to the appointed AI lead.
Audience
Right for you if
The audit works best where there is real AI usage, a real board mandate, and an appointed owner.
If you have not yet established whether there is an AI mandate from the top of the organisation, this audit is too early. Start with a discovery call instead.
You are a CEO, COO or CFO at a 200 to 1,500 person company where the board has asked the AI question.
Your teams are using AI tools today, but no one has a complete map of where, how much, or to what effect.
You need a plan you can fund at the next budget cycle, not a generic strategy deck.
Start with a 30 minute call
We will walk you through the audit scope, share examples of the findings format, and confirm whether this is the right starting point for your team.