AI Readiness Assessment | Data Analytics Consultancy | Why Work With a Data Consultant for Your AI Readiness Assessment
An AI Readiness Assessment is a structured evaluation that helps boards and CEOs determine whether their organisation is prepared to adopt Artificial Intelligence responsibly and at scale.
It examines strategy, governance, data, infrastructure, people, and culture to highlight strengths, gaps, and risks. The outcome is a clear roadmap that aligns AI investments with business goals, ensures compliance, and delivers sustainable value.
Why boards and CEOs should prioritise AI Readiness
Australian organisations are engaging with AI, but many lack sufficient preparedness:
- The National AI Centre (CSIRO’s Data61) has found that while most Australian organisations recognise AI’s impact, only a small proportion have formalised AI strategies or governance in place.
- Research from the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) shows that while businesses see AI as critical to competitiveness, more than 70% lack the frameworks to adopt it responsibly and at scale.
Notitia’s Approach to AI Readiness
Notitia views AI Readiness Assessments as more than technical audits, they are strategic exercises in trust-building. As a leading data analytics consultancy in Australia, we see them as essential to preparing organisations for responsible adoption.
According to Pierre du Preez, Director at Notitia, readiness is about giving boards and executive teams the clarity they need before committing resources:
“AI isn’t plug-and-play. If your organisation doesn’t trust its own data today, it won’t trust the decisions your AI makes tomorrow,” he says.
“An AI Readiness Assessment bridges that gap, it highlights where data governance, quality, or culture and organisational processes may be lacking and lays out the practical steps to address them.”
This perspective reflects Notitia’s mission to create trust in data and its vision to lead Australia in data and digital transformation.
Notitia’s AI Readiness Assessments typically focus on four critical areas before organisations even consider piloting AI tools:
- Data Quality and Governance – ensuring the organisation has clean, reliable, and well-managed data assets.
- Cultural and Skill Preparedness – building AI literacy among leaders and staff to reduce resistance and increase adoption.
- Process Maturity and Optimisation – reviewing workflows and systems to identify inefficiencies, duplications, or risks that could undermine AI success.
- Ethics and Oversight – embedding principles of fairness, transparency, and accountability into board-level governance.
“Our goal isn’t to sell hype. It’s to prepare Australian organisations for sustainable AI adoption,” Pierre says.
“That means identifying gaps in data, people, and processes early on, so when AI is implemented, it actually delivers value.”
By integrating these foundations into its assessments, Notitia ensures organisations don’t just “adopt AI”—they embed it in a way that is responsible, ethical, and aligned to their strategic outcomes.
Core pillars of an AI Readiness Assessment
1. Strategic Alignment
Boards must ensure AI efforts are intentional and aligned with long-term strategy.
- The Productivity Commission and the Department of Industry, Science and Resources emphasise that AI initiatives should be guided by a clear national and organisational roadmap, balancing innovation with compliance and risk management.
- The AI Maturity Assessment 2025, surveying 700+ organisations, emphasises the importance of articulating an AI strategy, roadmap, and alignment with compliance and deployment stages. (globenewswire.com)
- Thoughtworks’ global “State of Digital and AI Readiness” report shows only 17% of organisations are true leaders in digital and AI maturity. (Thoughtworks)
2. Data and Infrastructure
A solid technical foundation is non-negotiable. This is where consulting data analytics and governance expertise ensures organisations have the right structures before scaling AI.
- Organisations with strong Strategy, Data Readiness, and Compliance significantly outperform others in the global AI maturity survey. (globenewswire.com)
- McKinsey’s “Superagency” research highlights that leaders must act now or risk becoming uncompetitive later. (McKinsey & Company)
- The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) highlights the importance of strong data governance, interoperability, and infrastructure readiness before deploying AI across government and enterprise.
3. Governance, Ethics, and Risk
Ethics and regulation shape trust and compliance.
- The 2024 Voluntary AI Safety Standard outlines requirements for transparency, human oversight and record-keeping.
- The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) also sets privacy and data protection obligations that directly apply to AI adoption.
- Polling commissioned by the Minderoo Foundation shows that a majority of Australians support balanced AI regulation to ensure public trust and safety. A public Minderoo poll shows that 61% of Australians support balanced AI regulation; 64% favour stricter regulation if it ensures public safety. (The Australian)
4. People and Culture
Capability and mindset are AI’s ultimate levers.
- AWS reports that 39% of Australian businesses lack skills to adopt AI at scale—jeopardising the government’s ambition to create 200,000 AI-related jobs by 2030. (The Australian)
- Deloitte and RMIT surveys reveal more than one-third of employers report outdated tech skills, with women making up just 30% of the tech workforce. (The Australian)
- The Australian Services Union reports 80% of workers have basic or intermediate AI knowledge, but 84% have had no formal training. (The Australian)
- The Australian Computer Society (ACS) reports that skills shortages remain one of the biggest barriers to AI adoption, with a gap in digital and data skills across the workforce.
- The Federal Government’s White Paper on Jobs and Opportunities includes a commitment to create 200,000 AI-related jobs by 2030 — a target that depends on reskilling and inclusion efforts across the tech sector.
5. Process and Maturity
Knowing your maturity stage helps steer smart progression.
- Thoughtworks classifies organisations as Leaders (17%), Strong Performers (54%), Emerging Players (26%), and Late Adopters (3%), based on five readiness dimensions. (Thoughtworks)
- The National AI Centre advises organisations to benchmark their readiness across people, process, data and governance dimensions, helping boards understand whether they are early adopters, fast followers, or leaders in responsible AI.
6. Ongoing Oversight
AI readiness is a journey, not a checkbox.
The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has repeatedly shown in digital transformation reviews that projects fail when new technologies aren’t properly integrated into workflows, governance, and measurement frameworks.
Ongoing oversight ensures AI remains aligned with strategy, risk appetite, and compliance requirements.
How organisations should use the results of an AI Readiness Assessment
An AI Readiness Assessment yields a strategy-aligned roadmap including:
- Prioritised, vetted initiatives across impact, risk, and value.
- Clear gap identification—people, process, data, infrastructure.
- Governance frameworks matched to AI maturity and compliance needs.
- Pilot phase design—low-risk & high-value testbeds to fast-track scaling.
Reframing it: It's not just a diagnostic but a foundation for sustainable AI transformation backed by evidence and structure.
AI Roadmap: What happens after your AI Readiness Assessment?
The AI Readiness Assessment payoff
When done right, an AI Readiness Assessment ensures:
- Reduced risk — avoiding failures, compliance issues and reputational harm.
- Increased agility — preparing teams for fast-moving digital change.
- Stronger governance — meeting regulatory and stakeholder expectations.
- Realised value — generating measurable outcomes, not just experiments.
Get in touch to book in an AI Readiness Assessment for your business.
