EXECUTIVE DIAGNOSTIC | THERE'S NO AI WITHOUT IA

AI Readiness & Architecture Baseline

Identify the hidden Knowledge, Governance, Technical, and Operational gaps stalling your AI initiatives, before you commit six figures to software or development.

Backed by 30 years of Fortune 1000 information architecture expertise, our Baseline Diagnostic combines structured multi-stakeholder scoring with targeted executive interviews to expose internal blind spots, quantify the cost of inaction, and give your leadership team a clear, prioritized path forward in 5 to 7 business days.

12
QUESTIONS

9
REPORT SECTIONS

4
READINESS DOMAINS

5 to 7
BUSINESS DAYS TO DELIVERY

We are not selling you AI. We are equipping you to evaluate and direct whoever is building your AI. Every AI project requires foundational readiness across knowledge, operations, technology, and governance. The Baseline identifies where those foundations are strong and where they create risk, regardless of which firm or platform is doing the implementation.

Why Most AI Initiatives Stall Before Reaching Production

Across hundreds of enterprise and mid-market assessments, our data reveals two consistent patterns behind stalled AI investments:

  • Governance Consistently Scores Lowest: Most organizations rush into model selection and pilot tools while ignoring data ownership, metadata standards, compliance guardrails, and lifecycle accountability.
  • The 20-Point Leadership Blind Spot: When we benchmark leaders inside the same organization, we routinely see a 20+ point perception gap between IT, Operations, and Executive Leadership on basic questions of data quality and readiness. Single-person checklists miss this misalignment entirely.
THE REPORT

A Comprehensive Organizational Baseline, Delivered in 5 to 7 Business Days

Unlike generic self-service maturity quizzes, the AI Readiness & Architecture Baseline captures perspectives across your leadership team and validates them through direct architectural interviews.

01

12-Factor Diagnostic Across Up to 10 Stakeholders

Captures scored responses across Leadership, IT, Operations, Data/KM, and Compliance to surface cross-functional alignment and blind spots.

02

4-Domain Architectural Analysis

Evaluates readiness across Knowledge, Operational, Technical, and Governance dimensions using Earley Information Science's proprietary AIRR-10 and IAD-RAG frameworks.

03

3 to 4 Targeted Executive Interviews (30 Minutes Each)

Direct qualitative interviews conducted by our senior architects with your CTO, COO, Head of Data, or Business Unit sponsors to uncover root causes behind the data.

04

Quantified Gap & Risk Report

A board-ready diagnostic detailing your maturity profile, stakeholder divergence analysis, financial risk exposure, and priority remediation areas.

05

90-Minute Live Executive Readout

Led by Seth Earley and our senior consulting team to walk your leadership through the findings, answer technical questions, and map concrete next steps.

ASSESSMENT STRUCTURE

Twelve factors across four domains

The Baseline maps to the EIS AI Readiness Framework, which treats readiness as a multi-dimensional problem. Weakness in one domain constrains performance across all others, regardless of how strong the others are.

Knowledge Readiness

Factors: Knowledge Accessibility, Content Structure & Metadata, Procedure Documentation

Is your knowledge findable, structured, and complete enough for AI to retrieve and apply it accurately? Most AI failures begin here, not in the model.

Operational Readiness

Factors: SME Knowledge Workflows, Content Review Cycles, AI Output Monitoring

Do your operational processes support the ongoing quality that AI requires? AI does not maintain itself. Neither does the content it depends on.

Technical Readiness

Factors: AI-Ready Knowledge Repository, System Integration, Security & Audit Controls

Is your technical infrastructure capable of supporting AI at enterprise scale while meeting the auditability and security requirements of regulated environments?

Governance Readiness

Factors: Ownership & Governance, Cross-functional Collaboration, Leadership & Investment

Are ownership, accountability, and cross-functional alignment in place? The most common gap in enterprise AI is not a technical problem.

Very, very impressive. This is the kind of analysis we expected to pay significantly more for.

Baseline Diagnostic Client, CEO
Technology & Services Organization
TEAM PARTICIPATION

One perspective is a signal. Multiple stakeholders reveal organizational reality.

The most actionable finding in any Baseline is rarely the individual score. It is the gap between how two people at the same organization, in the same function, perceive the same capability. When that gap is 20 points or more, the organization cannot dismiss it as one person's opinion. The divergence is the finding.

The Baseline captures up to 10 stakeholders across Leadership, IT, Operations, Data/KM, and Compliance, then validates their answers through 3 to 4 executive interviews. That combination shows where your organization shares a view of its readiness and where it does not.

Scope
Diagnostic
Interviews
Readout

1. Scope the engagement

A 15-minute executive scoping call and a clean 2-page Statement of Work.

PRICING

Transparent Engagement Options

Two ways to engage: the Mid-Market Pilot Cohort at $12,500 for four qualifying organizations this quarter, or the standard Baseline at $25,000. Both include the full diagnostic, executive interviews, report, and 90-minute readout.

One person's diagnostic tells you their perspective. Ten tell you the truth.

Q4/Q1 COHORT, 4 SLOTS AVAILABLEEIS-Icon-Featured-Product

$12,500

50% Pilot Cohort Rate. Standard value: $25,000

We are expanding our Fortune 1000 benchmark dataset into the mid-market ($50M to $1B revenue) and opening 4 pilot engagements this quarter. You receive the full AI Readiness & Architecture Baseline deliverable suite at half our standard commercial rate.

Pilot Cohort Terms:

  • Includes full 10-stakeholder diagnostic, 3 to 4 executive interviews, report, and 90-minute readout

  • Strictly capped at 4 qualifying mid-market organizations (first-come, first-served)

  • Requires 100% upfront payment upon SOW execution to lock in a cohort slot

  • Client agrees to a brief post-readout feedback debrief and an anonymized case study quote

STANDARD COMMERCIAL ENGAGEMENT

$25,000

Full Baseline for enterprise and mid-market organizations

Designed for Enterprise organizations and mid-market firms outside the pilot cohort window seeking rapid, confidential architectural clarity.

Standard Terms:

  • Includes full 10-stakeholder diagnostic, 3 to 4 executive interviews, report, and 90-minute readout

  • Flexible scheduling with no case study or feedback obligations

  • Standard corporate invoicing (50% upon kickoff, 50% upon Executive Readout)

Optional Implementation Credit: Organizations that proceed to an Enterprise AI Blueprint ($45k to $55k) or Implementation Engagement ($100k+) within 60 days may apply 50% of their Baseline fee toward the next phase.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my data safe?

The information you share in the AI Readiness & Architecture Baseline is held in strict confidence. It is used exclusively to generate your organization's AI readiness analysis and for no other purpose. EIS does not sell, license, share, or otherwise disclose your responses to any party outside of Earley Information Science. View, print, or download our AI Readiness Assessment Data Confidentiality Certification ➝.

Can we sign an NDA?

If your organization requires a signed NDA before completing the AI Readiness & Architecture Baseline, please contact us before beginning the diagnostic. We will prepare a mutual NDA promptly and, in most cases, return a countersigned copy within one business day.

Email: privacy@earley.com
Reference: AI Readiness & Architecture Baseline NDA Request

What happens after I book?

You book a 15-minute executive scoping call, then sign a short Statement of Work. EIS then runs the stakeholder diagnostic and the executive interviews, and delivers your report and executive readout in 5 to 7 business days.

Who is this report designed for?

The report is designed to work for two audiences simultaneously. Senior leaders get an executive summary and scorecard they can act on directly. Practitioners and champions get gap analysis, phased recommendations, and diagnostic questions they can use to build an internal case for deeper investigation. Both audiences get industry context that situates the findings against sector benchmarks.

How is this different from a generic AI maturity assessment?

Generic diagnostics produce scores. This report produces an analysis. Every factor scoring at a gap level gets a dedicated paragraph explaining what that score means operationally, why it constrains AI performance, what the organizational risk is if left unaddressed, and what specific actions move the organization forward. The analysis draws on EIS's proprietary frameworks: the AI Readiness Maturity Model, IAD-RAG, AIRR-10, and the Retrieval Accuracy Improvement Loop. The methodology is the engine. Without it, the Baseline is a scored survey. With it, the report is a diagnostic.

Why does the comparative analysis matter so much?

One person's diagnostic reflects one person's visibility. Two people at the same organization, in the same function, answering the same 12 questions and arriving at scores 20 or more points apart reveals something an individual report cannot: the organization does not have a shared view of its own capabilities. That divergence is often the most valuable finding. It surfaces siloed understanding, inconsistent implementation across business units, and the organizational alignment gaps that no single respondent could have identified alone. The comparative analysis is what turns individual signals into organizational evidence.

How does the Baseline relate to the full 74-question AI diagnostic?

The Baseline tells you where the gaps are. The full 74-question diagnostic, conducted over 4 to 6 weeks with 15 to 25 stakeholders across the organization, tells you why the gaps exist and what specifically to do about each one. The Baseline creates the signal and the urgency. The full diagnostic provides the diagnosis and the treatment plan. They are complementary. Many organizations use the Baseline to build internal alignment around the need for deeper investigation before committing to the full engagement.

What if I have questions about my report after receiving it?

The 90-minute live executive readout with Seth Earley and our senior consulting team is where we walk through the findings, you validate them against your organizational reality, and together we map next steps. Most questions are best addressed in that session. You can also reach us at info@earley.com at any time.

Your AI project is already underway. Is the foundation ready for it?

A clear picture of where your AI readiness is strong and where it creates risk.