Every business owner says "I know AI could help but I don't know where to start." The problem isn't lack of tools — there are hundreds. The problem is knowing which bottleneck to attack first. This scorecard cuts through the noise.

How to use it: Read each statement below. Give yourself 1 point for every "yes." Tally your score at the end.

1. We spend 2+ hours/week on data entry or copy-pasting between tools

If someone on your team is manually moving information from one system to another, that's a solved problem. It's repetitive, error-prone, and one of the clearest automation wins available right now.

2. We have a process that only works because one person remembers all the steps

When the tribal knowledge lives in one person's head, you have a single point of failure. AI can help turn undocumented processes into repeatable, scalable workflows — before that person leaves or gets sick.

3. Our customer onboarding takes 3+ manual touchpoints

Onboarding is the moment customers decide if they made the right choice. If it requires multiple manual steps from your team, you're creating delays and inconsistency. Most of this can be automated.

4. We use spreadsheets as our primary database for something important

Spreadsheets are incredible for analysis. They're terrible as a system of record. If your pricing, inventory, customer data, or project tracking lives in a shared Excel file, you're accumulating technical debt every day.

5. We've tried an AI tool but it didn't stick

This is more common than most people admit. A failed AI adoption isn't a sign that "AI doesn't work for us" — it usually means the tool wasn't matched to the right problem, or there was no change management. That's fixable.

6. Our team asks the same 10 questions repeatedly with no single source of truth

"What's the refund policy?" "Where's the project brief?" "Who owns this client?" If your team is Slacking each other for information that should be findable in 10 seconds, you're burning hours every week. An internal AI agent can fix this.

7. We make decisions on gut feel because pulling the data takes too long

If getting a straight answer out of your data takes a meeting, a BI report, or a favor from someone in ops — you're flying blind. Fast decisions require fast data access. This is one of the highest-ROI investments in the category.

8. We've delayed a project because we couldn't find the right developer

Building software without the right technical partner is painful. Many business owners have a clear vision but get stuck on the "how do I find someone who gets it" problem. This is exactly what fractional technical leadership solves.

9. We spend significant time on reports or documents that could be templated

Weekly updates, client reports, proposals, meeting summaries — if these take more than 20 minutes to produce and follow the same structure every time, AI generation can cut that to under 5.

10. We know what we want to build but don't know how to specify it

The gap between "I have an idea" and "a developer can build this" is where most projects die. Knowing how to translate business needs into technical specifications is a skill — and it's learnable.

Your Score

0–3: You're in decent shape. The items you answered "yes" to are still worth fixing, but you're not leaving huge value on the table. Focus on the specific bottlenecks you flagged.

4–6: Real opportunities here. A focused 2-week sprint could automate your biggest bottleneck and free up meaningful time. The ROI on the right fix is usually immediate.

7–10: You're leaving significant time and money on the table. The good news: the highest-impact fixes are usually the simplest ones. You don't need to boil the ocean — you need to pick the right first domino.

What Now?

The scorecard shows you where the opportunities are. The harder question is: which one do you tackle first?

That depends on your business model, your team, and what's actually causing the most pain right now. There's no universal answer — but there usually is a clear one for any specific business.

Want to know which I'd tackle first? Book a 20-minute call. Concrete recommendation, no pitch.