The Differentiator
Every PE sponsor is asking the same question right now: "What's our AI strategy for the portfolio?" And every finance team is feeling the same pressure: automate, optimise, deploy AI. Yesterday, please.
80-85% of AI readiness is finance operations, not technology. The data foundation. The process maturity. The governance framework. The team capability. Get those right, and AI becomes a powerful accelerator. Get them wrong, and you're spending £500K on tools that sit on top of broken processes and make them break faster.
I don't sell AI tools. I tell you whether they'll work.
The Counter-Narrative
The AI market is full of vendors promising transformation. What tends to get left out of the sales pitch:
- 42% of AI initiatives are abandoned before delivering value, usually because the underlying data and processes weren't ready
- Most finance functions don't have the data quality to feed AI models reliably
- Automation isn't AI, and most finance processes need good old-fashioned automation before they need artificial intelligence
- The EU AI Act is creating new compliance obligations that most companies haven't started preparing for
My AI Readiness assessment cuts through the noise. No vendor bias. No technology agenda. Just a clear, experienced view of whether your finance function is actually ready for AI, and a practical roadmap to get there if it isn't.
What We Assess
Data Foundation
Is your financial data structured, clean, consistent, and accessible enough to support AI? I assess data quality across your core financial systems, evaluate data architecture, and identify the gaps that would undermine any AI deployment. This is where most companies discover their real starting point is further back than they expected. That's not a failure. It's useful information that saves you money.
Process Automation Potential
Before AI, automation. I map your finance processes and identify which are actually suitable for AI-driven automation, which are better served by RPA or simple workflow tools, and which need to be fixed before any technology can help. The practical answer isn't always the exciting one, but it's the one that saves money.
Use Case Prioritisation
Not all AI use cases are created equal. I evaluate potential use cases for your specific finance function — cash flow forecasting, anomaly detection, invoice processing, reporting automation — and rank them by feasibility, impact, and readiness. You get a prioritised list, not a wish list.
EU AI Act Governance Framework
The EU AI Act is real, it's here, and finance functions that use AI need to be prepared. I assess your current governance posture and build a practical framework that covers:
- Risk classification of AI use cases in finance
- Transparency and documentation requirements
- Human oversight protocols
- Data governance for AI systems
- Ongoing monitoring and compliance
Shadow AI Policy
Something that catches a lot of companies off guard: your team is already using AI. ChatGPT for report drafting, copilots for analysis, unofficial tools for data processing. Shadow AI is a governance risk that most companies haven't addressed. I help you build a practical policy that enables productive use while managing risk, because banning it doesn't work. (It just goes underground.)
The Partnership Model
AI readiness has two dimensions: the finance operations side (80-85%) and the technical infrastructure side (15-20%). I cover the finance operations comprehensively. For the technical assessment, covering infrastructure, architecture, and integration capabilities, I partner with a trusted technical CTO who complements my finance expertise.
This means you get:
- Deep finance operations expertise from someone who's spent 25 years inside finance functions
- Proper technical assessment from someone who builds and evaluates technology infrastructure
- No conflicts of interest. Neither of us sells the tools we're evaluating
- One integrated deliverable that covers both dimensions
What You Get
The AI Readiness assessment delivers:
- AI Readiness Scorecard — Where you stand across data, process, governance, people, and technology dimensions
- Use Case Analysis — Prioritised AI opportunities with feasibility, impact, and prerequisite assessments
- Readiness Roadmap — What to fix first, what to automate, and when AI becomes viable
- Governance Framework — EU AI Act compliance approach and shadow AI policy
- Executive Briefing — Board-ready presentation that separates hype from reality
The Investment Case
Before you spend £500K on AI tools, spend £20K finding out if your data can support them.
At £15,000-£25,000, the AI Readiness assessment is a fraction of the cost of a failed AI deployment. It either confirms you're ready to invest (with a clear roadmap for where to start) or saves you from spending money on tools that would sit on top of broken foundations.
Either way, you make better decisions. And that's the whole point.
Thinking about AI for your finance function? Get in touch to discuss whether an AI Readiness assessment is the right next step, or whether you need to fix the operations first.