AI Readiness: Is your company prepared to scale with AI?

Adopting new technology followed a simple playbook: buy the system, train people, and expect productivity gains. With AI, the story is different. Companies face a tougher challenge, moving beyond pilots and actually turning this technology into measurable results.

At Making Sense, we often meet leaders eager to “do something with AI.” And we ask: what problem do you need to solve? And we'll see if AI is a good candidate.

It’s a different approach, because it doesn’t start from the solution (what AI can do for my company) but from the problem (which processes need to be improved). And right there, a new question immediately arises: is my company truly ready? 

In other words: does it have reliable data management, and is the talent and organizational culture prepared for a transformation? This is where AI readiness becomes critical if the goal is to drive efficiency, revenue, and sustainable growth.

What is AI readiness and why does it matter?

AI readiness describes an organization’s ability to successfully implement and scale initiatives that deliver business impact. It is much more than having the latest platform. A company can invest in powerful technologies, but without clear strategy, reliable data, and a supportive culture, results will fall short.

Why does it matter?

• Faster decision-making: leaders gain real-time insights instead of relying on outdated reports.
• Efficiency gains: repetitive tasks are automated, giving employees more time for higher-value work.
• Revenue growth: personalization, predictive analytics, and optimized processes directly drive sales.
• Resilience: organizations that are prepared adapt faster to market shifts and customer demands.

For businesses, the stakes are higher: budgets are tighter, and failed pilots are costly. Readiness ensures every investment translates into measurable growth and efficiency. The good news is that readiness can be measured, giving companies a clear starting point to strengthen their capabilities before scaling this technology.

The three pillars of AI readiness

Most frameworks agree that successful integration depends on three essential pillars: strategy, data, and culture. If one of these areas is weak, scaling becomes difficult.

1. Strategy: aligning technology with business goals

AI only delivers results when it is connected to the company’s priorities. Strategy is about making sure every initiative has a clear “why” behind it.

Key elements include:

• Strategic alignment: every project must connect to business KPIs such as EBITDA, growth, or margin expansion.
• Discovery process: analyzing the business to identify where AI can create the greatest impact, from quick wins to long-term opportunities. This step helps separate hype from initiatives that truly move the needle.

When leadership spends too much time on manual processes, it limits their ability to focus on growth opportunities. When we worked together with CCI Puesto de Bolsa, a leading brokerage firm in the Dominican Republic, we helped them automate investment monitoring and portfolio reporting. This freed executives from repetitive tasks so they could dedicate more energy to strategy, resulting in a threefold increase in user engagement and stronger scalability.

2. Data: the foundation of any intelligent initiative

Models are only as good as the information they run on. Issues with quality, accessibility, or governance can undermine results.

Companies should focus on:

• Quality: accuracy, completeness, and consistency.
• Accessibility: ensuring information flows across departments.
• Governance: policies for security, privacy, and compliance.

Esquire Deposition Solutions, a national leader in court reporting and legal support services, faced the challenge of working with information spread across different systems. When we partnered with them to centralize their data and apply AI-powered scheduling, they gained full visibility, improved efficiency by 40%, and even increased valuation by 10%

3. Culture: preparing people to work with technology

Implementation is not only a technical process. It’s also about people. Employees need clarity and reassurance to embrace new platforms and practices.

This includes:

• Executive sponsorship: leaders who actively champion initiatives and communicate their value.
• Change management: guiding teams through the transition with training, communication, and support.
• Clear communication: making sure employees have realistic expectations about the implementation of AI. Teams need to understand both the potential and the limitations of the technology, so they know what to expect and how it will support their work.
• Training and reskilling: building new competencies around data and automation.

Auto Approve, a U.S. leader in auto loan refinancing, partnered with Making Sense to analyze how AI could optimize its call center operations. Through this assessment, we identified that by introducing AI-powered scheduling and lead scoring, agents’ work would become easier and cultural adoption would follow naturally. The analysis showed that such an approach could lead to a 20% reduction in missed calls and a 15% improvement in customer experience scores.

How to assess your organization’s AI readiness

Knowing where your company stands is the first step to moving forward with certainty. An honest evaluation helps identify both strengths and the gaps that may prevent initiatives from scaling.

Key dimensions to review include:

• Strategic alignment: Is there clarity on how these initiatives connect to business goals?
• Data quality and accessibility: Are your systems reliable and integrated, or are insights locked in silos?
• Infrastructure: Do you have the platforms required to support advanced models?
• Workforce skills: Are employees prepared to embrace new solutions and workflows?
• Governance: Are policies in place to manage ethics, security, and compliance?

Many companies hesitate because they don’t know how to answer these questions. To make this easier, we created the five minutes Quick AI Readiness Assessment.

Based on your answers, our AI specialists quickly prepare a snapshot of where your company stands and highlight the areas that deserve more attention. It takes less than five minutes to complete and doesn’t require technical expertise, any business leader can do it

Key challenges companies face when adopting AI

When companies begin exploring AI, they often discover that the real obstacles are less about technology itself and more about organizational readiness. Systems may not fully connect, employees may feel unsure about unfamiliar platforms, or pilots may succeed in isolation but stall when it’s time to expand.

These situations are common, and they’re not signs of failure. In fact, they provide valuable clues about where to focus first. A company dealing with fragmented systems is uncovering the need for stronger integration. Teams that hesitate to use new technologies point to the importance of training and clear communication. Pilots that don’t scale reveal the need to adjust workflows and governance.

Seen this way, challenges become stepping stones. Each one points to a readiness gap that, once addressed, accelerates progress. The companies that succeed are not those that avoid obstacles, but those that learn from them and turn them into stronger foundations for growth.

How Making Sense can help accelerate your AI journey

Implementing AI is not about technology alone. It’s about creating the right conditions for change through a progressive journey. That’s why at Making Sense we see ourselves less as providers and more as partners.

Our role is to help companies translate ambition into practical outcomes by focusing on readiness first:

• Starting with readiness: we begin with an AI Readiness Assessment to establish a baseline and highlight the areas that need attention before scaling.
• Identifying opportunities: together we uncover where AI can create real impact, aligning initiatives with business goals.
• Designing tailored solutions: we build models and integrations that fit your processes, instead of forcing you to adapt to generic platforms.
• Driving adoption: we support your teams with training and change management so solutions become part of daily work.
• Delivering measurable impact: we focus on efficiency gains, revenue growth, and stronger customer experiences to prove that readiness pays off.

For us, success means helping companies make AI part of how the business runs every day. And that’s where readiness becomes a real competitive advantage. Companies that invest in strong foundations across strategy, data, and culture don’t just see efficiency gains—they build resilience and the ability to compete on equal footing with larger players.

Curious to see where your organization stands? Take our AI Readiness Quick Assessment. In just a few minutes, you’ll get a clear snapshot of your current maturity and where to focus next.