An AI readiness checklist for a paper and spreadsheet office.
You do not have to replace every spreadsheet to ask a useful question about AI. Pick one task. This checklist helps you see what needs organizing, what needs writing down and what might be ready for a careful pilot.
Name a task, not a department
“Help with admin” is too broad to test. Try “draft a reply to a routine request using our current service information.” Write down what comes in, what the draft should say and who checks it. Note how often it comes up and what happens when it goes wrong.
Find the information a person would need
List the paper files, spreadsheet tabs, emails and instructions the task uses. Work out which one is the current source and who owns it. If two sheets disagree, settle that before you ask an assistant to pick one. Then test whether a backup person can find the same answer.
Write the decisions down
Split the steps anyone could repeat from the decisions that take judgment. List what is often missing, the unusual requests and the moments the task should stop. If the work lives in one person’s head, sit with them and write a short procedure first.
Check access and responsibility
Name the person who will review the output, and make sure they have the time. Find the private customer, employee or financial information before you pick a tool or upload anything. Work out what access is needed, what has to stay out and who can sign off on that.
Try the task without AI first.
Hand a colleague the same information and the same instructions. If they cannot finish the task, you have found what to fix. An assistant needs a clear starting point too.
Print your one-task AI readiness worksheet
Write unknown next to anything you cannot answer yet. An unknown is a follow-up task. It is not a reason to guess.
Use your browser’s Print command to print this guide or save a PDF. The worksheet starts on a fresh page.
Task and how often it happens ____________________
What comes in and what done looks like ____________________
Current information and who owns it ____________________
Written steps and common exceptions ____________________
Private information and who is approved to see it ____________________
Reviewer and the time they have to check the work ____________________
Cost of a wrong answer or action ____________________
What has to stop the workflow and who can stop it ____________________
- □ The task comes up often enough to be worth improving.
- □ A person can find the source information and trust it.
- □ The steps and the exceptions are written down.
- □ Someone can review the output before it gets used.
- □ Access and private information have been looked at.
- □ A small test has clear examples of good results and bad ones.
Pick the next step from the gap
Scattered records? Organize first. Know-how nobody wrote down? Document first. No reviewer? Name an owner first. Sensitive information, or a mistake that would cost real money, means a careful review with Innovation Theory before any pilot. A task that rarely comes up may only need a checklist. If the basics are in place, scope a small pilot and test it on ordinary cases, missing information and wrong answers.
Want a hand with the next step?
AI assistants and automation with Innovation Theory. Get It Together, Denver does the organizing on site. Innovation Theory does the technical work, including AI and automation. Packages start at $5,000. The first step is a free video walk-through. Use it to work out where help would actually be useful.
An AI assistant with a real person behind it.
We call it Managed Office Assistance. Innovation Theory builds the assistant and looks after it. The assistant writes the first draft. The person who owns that work at your company checks it before anything goes out. Quotes, repeat questions and follow-ups stop starting from a blank page.
Get It Together, Denver gets your records and procedures in order, in your office. Before the assistant touches anything, we all agree who checks its work and what it’s allowed to see.
Rather talk it through?
Call (303) 900-8931 or send a text. Tell us what’s piling up. That’s enough to start.