Is your AI program as ready as you think it is?

Take our free five-minute assessment to get your organization's AI-to-impact readiness score.

 

 

The Problem: AI is everywhere. Impact is not.

Your pilots are running. Your vendors are engaged. Your teams are reporting real productivity gains in specific workflows.

And yet revenue has not moved. Margins look the same. The board is asking harder questions than you have clear answers for.

You're not alone. In its 2026 Global CEO Survey of 4,454 chief executives across 95 countries, global consultancy PwC reported that 56% of respondents saw “neither higher revenues nor lower costs from AI”.

This is not a technology problem. The pilots that worked proved the technology can deliver results. The problem is structural. And the structural gaps in most mid-market AI programs are invisible until you look for them in a deliberate, organized way.

The Strategy of Things AI IQ Lite Assessment helps surface some of those gaps in just five minutes.

See where you stand with this mini assessment

Our Strategy of Things AI IQ Lite Assessment will give you an indicative AI-to-impact readiness score.

It is twelve multiple-choice questions and takes five minutes to complete. It is based on our SoT AI Enterprise Reference Model, a nine-layer framework that maps every dimension of AI capability an organization needs to deliver sustained business value.

This Mini Assessment is not intended to give you a complete organizational diagnostic. What these twelve intentionally designed questions will do is force holistic thinking about your AI program: structured, honest, and covering all nine layers across the business.

The indicative score you receive is a reality check, not a verdict. For most leaders who complete it, the most valuable part is not the score. It is the questions. Because most organizations discover they have never asked themselves these questions in this way, and that the answers are less comfortable than they expected.

That discomfort is the starting point. It is where the right decisions begin.

The Mini Assessment examines three areas of your AI program - the Foundation Zone, the Build Zone, and the Human Zone. It will give you an indication of where you are likely solid and where structural gaps are likely limiting your results.

Foundation Zone (Layers 1 through 3)

The technical bedrock your AI program depends on: infrastructure and compute, model management, and data quality and governance.

Pilots survive a weak Foundation Zone because they operate on curated data and narrowly provisioned resources. Production-grade AI deployed operationally does not.

Build Zone (Layers 4 through 6)

How AI moves from capability into business operation: development and delivery practices, AI embedded in actual workflows, and the intelligent interfaces your people and customers interact with.

This is where mid-market organizations find their real advantage, or lose significant budget trying to build what should be bought.

Human Zone (Layers 7 through 9)

Where business impact is ultimately won or lost: governance and policy, adoption and enablement, and strategy and leadership.

This zone is almost always the weakest in mid-market organizations. And almost always the least examined. Its gaps are invisible until they become expensive.

What you receive from the mini assessment

Your Indicative Score

An indicative score from 0 to 100 based on your twelve responses. A structured starting picture of where your organization likely stands across the three zones. It is not a precise measurement but a meaningful reality check. The score is benchmarked against similar organizations in the industry you operate in.

Your SoT AI-IQ-Lite Assessment Report

A six-page report containing your overall Strategy of Things AI-IQ  Lite Assessment score, high-level picture of which zones are likely solid and which are likely harboring the structural gaps that are limiting your business results, and an indicative assessment of your organization's ability to operationalize AI as a business capability. Designed to show you where to look, not to replace a full diagnostic.

From AI Projects to AI Impact Guide

A free digital copy of "From AI Projects to AI Impact," a practical guide to building the operating function that turns AI activity into business results. Written for mid-market leaders, not enterprise AI teams. Fifty-five pages covering strategy, portfolio prioritization, governance, and execution. Provides additional context to understand your Strategy of Things AI-IQ Lite Assessment results.

Who should take this mini assessment?

The CEO whose board is asking harder questions about AI returns than you have clear answers for. The lite assessment gives you a structured starting picture before that next conversation.

The COO or VP of Operations with AI initiatives running across your function and a growing sense that the foundation may not be solid enough to scale them. The lite assessment shows you where the structural gaps are likely living before they become expensive problems.

The CIO or CTO holding technical accountability for AI while also being asked to translate that work into business outcomes for your leadership team. The lite assessment gives you an organized, zone-by-zone view of where capability is present and where it is likely absent.

The accidental CAIO who did not set out to lead AI strategy but has the accountability regardless. The lite assessment was built with your specific reality in mind: limited time, real accountability, and no shortage of questions you have never had a structured way to answer.

You do not need a complete AI strategy to take it. You do not need a dedicated AI team. You need five minutes and a willingness to answer twelve questions honestly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the difference between the lite assessment and the full assessment? The Strategy of Things AI IQ™ Lite Assessment is a free, twelve-question starting check that gives you an indicative readiness picture across the three zones of the SoT AI Enterprise Reference Model. It is designed to surface the right questions and give you a structured starting point in five minutes. The full assessment, currently in development, goes deeper across all nine layers and 72 sub-areas to produce a comprehensive, evidence-based diagnostic. If you want to be notified when the full assessment becomes available, note your interest when you complete the lite version.

Q: How long does the lite assessment take? The Strategy of Things AI IQ™ Lite Assessment is designed to be completed in approximately five minutes. It is built for senior operational and executive leaders to complete independently or as a small leadership team working through it together.

Q: Is the lite assessment really free? Yes. The lite assessment is completely free. You receive your indicative score, a zone-by-zone starting picture, and the full Mid-Market AI Strategy Handbook at no cost.

Q: How accurate is the indicative score? The lite assessment is designed to give you a structured starting picture, not a precise measurement. Twelve questions across nine layers will surface the right areas of examination and give you a meaningful reality check on where your program likely stands. It will not replace a full diagnostic. Most leaders find the greatest value not in the score itself but in the questions, which reveal dimensions of their AI program they have rarely examined in a structured way.

Q: Who should complete the lite assessment? The assessment is designed for senior leaders in mid-market organizations, typically companies in the $50 million to $500 million revenue range, who hold accountability for AI outcomes. The ideal respondent is a CEO, COO, CIO, CTO, or equivalent. It can be completed individually or as a group exercise with a small leadership team.

Q: What happens after I complete the assessment? You receive your indicative score and zone-by-zone picture immediately, along with the free handbook. If your results surface gaps you want to address with structured support, Strategy of Things offers a 60 minute results debrief conversation. That is a working conversation, not a sales pitch. If there is a fit for deeper engagement, it will be apparent to both of us.

Q: How is this different from other AI assessments? Most AI readiness tools evaluate whether you are using AI and how many use cases you have running. The Strategy of Things AI IQ™ Lite Assessment evaluates organizational AI capability across all nine layers of the enterprise capability stack, from technical infrastructure through strategic leadership, in a structured twelve-question format designed for busy mid-market leaders. It is designed to surface the structural gaps that determine whether AI creates sustained business value, not just isolated project results.

Start your assessment now – results in five minutes

The organizations that will look back on this period as a turning point are not necessarily the ones that moved fastest. They are the ones that moved with the clearest picture of where they actually stood.

The Strategy of Things AI IQ™ Lite Assessment is where that picture starts.

Five minutes. Twelve questions. A structured starting point for every AI decision that follows.