Methodology
How the number is produced, and what keeps it honest.
Four models do the work: a maturity language everyone can hold in their head, a capability model with a readiness threshold, a wave roadmap sequenced by dependency, and a value model with rules it cannot break.
Three vocabularies, three jobs, never mixed. Maturity (Aware→Transform) answers where you are. Waves (W1–W4) answer in what order. Autonomy levels (L1–L3) answer how much an agent may do in a given workflow.
Maturity model
Five stages. One sentence to place you.
Executives do not need a scoring rubric; they need to know where they stand and what the next stage requires.
1. Aware
AI is discussed, not governed. Isolated experiments, no shared value case.
2. Investigate
Structured pilots begin. Data, skills and governance gaps become visible.
3. Activate
First workflows run in production, with human oversight and measured value.
4. Accelerate
Capability spreads across functions. Value compounds and the operating model becomes explicit.
5. Transform
An AI-native operating model. Agents work alongside teams under governed, reversible autonomy.
One language
The same five stages across the report, the dashboard and the conversation. No parallel vocabulary to reconcile.
Placed by evidence
Your stage comes out of the assessment, not out of a conversation. The report states it in a single sentence on page one.
The engine stays behind
There is a scoring engine underneath. It is deliberately not shown to you, because a score is not a decision: a stage plus its next move is.
Capability model
Eight capabilities, read against one threshold.
Five business capabilities and three technology capabilities. What matters is not the exact position but which side of the readiness threshold it falls on.
Positions shown are illustrative, to explain how the threshold is read. Your chart comes from your own assessment.
Business capabilities
Whether the organisation can absorb and govern AI.
- Executive LeadershipAt readiness
- AI GovernanceBelow threshold
- People & CultureBelow threshold
- Business IntegrationBelow threshold
- AI Operating ModelBelow threshold
Technology capabilities
Whether the technical foundation can carry it.
- Data FoundationAt readiness
- Technology PlatformAt readiness
- AI FactoryBelow threshold
The readiness threshold. Below it, a capability is a blocker: the wave that depends on it does not start until it clears. Above it, the capability is good enough to build on. Improving it further is optimisation, not a prerequisite. That distinction is what turns a chart into a sequencing decision.
Roadmap
Four waves, sequenced by dependency.
Waves are not ambition levels. A wave starts when the capability it rests on clears the readiness threshold, which is why roadmaps that skip ahead stall in wave two.
- W1
Productivity
Individual and team productivity. Assistants inside existing work, measured against a real before/after rather than enthusiasm.
Depends on: Access, basic guardrails and a way to measure.
Proof it worked: Habit formation: the same people still using it in month three.
- W2
Process Automation
Process automation. End-to-end workflows redesigned around human–agent collaboration, with autonomy calibrated per step.
Depends on: Data foundation and governance clearing the threshold.
Proof it worked: Cycle time and exception rate move, and stay moved.
- W3
Decision Intelligence
Decision intelligence. AI in the decisions themselves, such as forecasting, pricing and allocation, under explicit model risk management.
Depends on: Trustworthy data, evaluations and model risk management in place.
Proof it worked: Decision quality improves against a pre-agreed baseline.
- W4
AI-Native
AI-native operating model. New services and cadences that were not staffable before, with agents operating inside governed bounds.
Depends on: An operating model, a measurement pipeline and agent-scale security.
Proof it worked: Capability that competitors cannot copy by buying the same tools.
The 24-month plan in the report places specific initiatives into these waves with owners and dependencies. The waves are the grammar; your plan is the sentence.
Value model
Bottom-up, or it is not a number.
The value answer is built from function-level ranges and nothing else. There is exactly one value model in the report, and every figure in every section resolves back to it.
- 1
Per function
Each function gets a low and a high, derived from its own workload and team size, not from a market average.
- 2
Annual run-rate
The sum of the function ranges once capability is in place. The headline is the sum; it is never chosen first.
- 3
Three-year cumulative
Run-rate multiplied by a ramp that assumes value arrives gradually, because it does.
- 4
Payback
Cumulative value plotted against the investment envelope, with the break-even point stated rather than implied.
Four rules the model cannot break
One source of truth
If the sum of the functions does not equal the headline, the report fails its own test and is not delivered. This is enforced in code, not by review.
Assumptions on the page
Cost ranges, team sizes and their sources sit next to the number, not in an appendix nobody opens.
Cost side only in the core
Revenue upside is deliberately excluded from the core case and reported separately, because it is the easiest number to inflate.
The ceiling stays qualitative
Capability gains that cannot be counted honestly are described in words. They never get a € or a %, however tempting.
Why figures stay indicative
Indicative / draftUntil a figure is validated against your own data it is a range, not a commitment, and it is labelled as one everywhere it appears. Measured values, such as an industry average, are not labelled, because they are measured.
Engagement model
Where the methodology meets the calendar.
- 1
Discovery
- 2
Design
- 3
Build
- 4
Operate
- 5
Lead
Discovery is the entry point, not the destination.
Get the number. Then build the operating model that delivers it.
Insight gives your executive team a defensible answer in two days. Everything beyond it starts with a conversation about the decision in front of you.