A Practical Guide to Assess AI Readiness

Author

Marketer In The Loop
October 18, 2024

A Practical Guide to Assess AI Readiness

AI's probably on your radar for 2025. Integrating it into your marketing strategy requires careful assessment of your current capabilities.

The big picture: Understanding your AI readiness helps identify skill gaps, prioritize investments, and plan for 2025.

But… “What if I’m not a manager?” Jump into section 2 and adapt the questions for a self-assessment. Alternatively, run the survey with colleagues and use the results to discuss future AI plans with your manager.

Why it matters: A full AI assessment may take 3-6 weeks, but I've got shortcuts to make your life easier. Ready to dive in?

Here's a 3-step game plan:

1. Assess Organizational Readiness

Objective: Gauge your org's capacity for change and pinpoint key AI influential voices.

Actions:

  • Evaluate change management: Leadership support (do you have an executive sponsor?); resource availability (budget, tech, people); cultural openness (how adaptable is the marketing team?)

  • Analyze stakeholders: Map who is involved or affected, and their influence and support

Pro tip: This step uncovers potential roadblocks and smooths the path for AI implementation.

2. Deploy an AI Marketing Literacy Survey

Objective: Get the lowdown on your team's AI skills.

Actions:

  • Distribute a 20-30-question anonymous survey

  • Give your stakeholders a week to complete it (follow up and leverage the executive sponsor as needed)

  • Crunch the numbers to spot trends, strengths, and areas for improvement

Shortcut alert: I've got a survey template ready for you. You are welcome. ✌🏼

  1. Access my Public Folder on Google Drive 

  2. Open the survey, click on the three dots in the top right corner and then “Make a copy” (don't edit the original)

  3. Customize it by adding your logo, tweaking questions, updating use cases, tools, etc.

Need benchmarks? Check out the industry reports below:

3. Conduct Interviews and Focus Groups

Objective: Dig deeper into those survey findings.

Actions:

  • 1:1 interviews: Pick team members across roles and experience levels; explore their AI experiences, challenges, and feelings

  • Focus groups: Gather 6-8 stakeholders for dynamic discussions; if possible, use a neutral moderator

Workshop suggestion: Try the Rose, Bud, Thorn exercise to identify positive outcomes and potential challenges.

The bottom line: By mashing up survey data, interview insights, and your org assessment, you'll get a clear picture of where you stand with AI. And then you can use this intel to develop your strategy, potential training programs and, last but not least, boost stakeholder engagement and support.

Did you like it? Do you want more resources like this? Please let me know.