AI audit for small business: what an assessment should tell you

An AI audit for a small business, sometimes called an AI readiness assessment, asks a practical question: where could better connections and automation make the work easier, and would the improvement justify its cost? It should produce evidence and a decision, not an obligation to buy a build.

AI audit checklist for small businesses

You can start most of this yourself before anyone installs anything. Work through it for the jobs that eat the most time: quotes, billing, scheduling, reports, follow-ups.

• List recurring workflows, the people involved, and how often each one runs.
• Note where information is copied between systems, by hand.
• Include corrections, waiting, approvals, and exceptions, not just the happy path.
• List AI tools already in use, including personal accounts, and the information they receive.
• Record which business systems hold the data each workflow needs, and who controls access to them.
• Agree with your team, in writing, what will be measured and why, before measuring it.
• Record the outcome you want to improve and how you would measure it.
• Put the full cost of any change (build, running, and review time) next to its estimated value.
• Decide for each item: build it, wait, or leave it alone.

Keep estimates separate from observations. If a task takes five hours a week, it does not follow that all five hours are recoverable. Human review, exceptions, and work that remains elsewhere affect the opportunity.

How Edgerton measures it

Edgerton is our software agent. We install it on the computers you choose, with the team's knowledge and consent, for ten business days. The agreed visibility level determines what it collects. Staff are informed; this is not a covert monitoring service.

The assessment looks at the workflow, tools, repeated steps, and time spent. It can help document procedures and identify useful connections. Read the assessment page for collection boundaries, consent, and retention.

What the report should explain

You receive findings, ranked opportunities, and a proposal showing the proposed build, systems, cost, timing, and estimated payback. The assumptions should be clear enough to challenge. You keep the report and choose whether to proceed.

To annualize time value, multiply weekly hours by the recoverable share, working weeks, and loaded hourly cost. Keep that capacity separate from cash savings. Include build, operating, and review costs over the same period before calculating financial return.

The next decision is yours

The assessment has a fixed fee agreed before installation. If we find no clear ROI path, we refund that fee and you keep the report. If the proposal makes sense, we build the agreed work using EdgeKeeper and support what we deliver. There is no requirement to buy the build.

Read a sample report and proposal or review the engagement stages.