An AI audit that tells you where AI would actually help.
A fast, structured AI readiness assessment for small businesses. In one to two weeks we map how your work really flows, find where time and money are leaking, and hand you a prioritised plan, before you spend anything on a build.
"I think AI could help us. I just don't know where"
Most owners we meet are in the same spot. You've read the headlines, tried ChatGPT once or twice, maybe watched a competitor make noise about automation. You have a nagging sense that AI could take real work off your team's plate. What you don't have is a straight answer to where it fits your business, what it would be worth, and what to do first. So nothing happens. Or worse, someone buys a tool on a hunch and it quietly gets abandoned.
The AI Audit exists to replace that guesswork with evidence. It's the low-commitment way to find out what's actually worth doing, so your first move with AI is a considered one rather than a punt.
What an AI audit actually is
An AI audit is a short, structured look at how your business runs, aimed squarely at one question: where would AI or automation save you the most time and money, and where wouldn't it? It isn't a sales pitch dressed as a review, and it isn't a generic AI strategy deck you could have downloaded. We sit down with you and the people who do the work, map how tasks actually move through the business day to day, and pinpoint the places where hours leak into repetitive, rules-based admin.
The output is practical, not theoretical: a prioritised list of the specific opportunities we found, rough ROI estimates against each, and a 90-day action plan you can pick up with us or run on your own.
Who it's for, and when it isn't
The audit is built for owners and directors who suspect AI could help but don't yet know where it fits. If you have repetitive, rules-based work worth automating and a willingness to change how a few things get done, you're the right kind of business for it. And smaller teams often see the fastest, clearest wins, because a few hours handed back is a bigger share of the week.
Here's the honest part. This isn't for you if you already know exactly what you want built. In that case you don't need a diagnostic, you need a scope, so go straight to a Custom AI build. It's also not for you if the honest answer is "not yet": if your processes aren't settled enough to automate, or the work you'd hand to AI is genuinely one-off rather than repeatable, we'll tell you that plainly rather than sell you a build you don't need. An audit that concludes "wait six months" is still a good audit. You've saved the money you'd have wasted.
What happens, week by week
The audit runs one to two weeks from kickoff to delivery, depending on the size of the business and how many processes we look at. It follows the same shape as every Lume engagement, just compressed:
- Discovery. We map your processes, your tech stack, and where time and money are leaking. This is a few short conversations with you and the team, plus a representative look at how the work really gets done, not a big time commitment from your side.
- Analysis. We take that away and work out which opportunities carry the highest return, weighing the time saved against the effort to build and how clean your data already is.
- Delivery. We walk you through the findings: the prioritised opportunities, the rough numbers behind each, and the 90-day plan. You leave able to make a decision on evidence.
We work around your team's calendar, not the other way round, so it doesn't pull people off their day jobs.
What you walk away with
Three things, all yours to keep:
- A prioritised opportunity list: the specific places in your business where AI or automation would earn its keep, ranked so you know what to do first.
- Rough ROI estimates: honest, directional numbers against each opportunity, so you can weigh cost against return before committing.
- A 90-day action plan: a concrete sequence you can act on with us or by yourselves.
Most businesses walk away with at least three quick wins worth far more than the cost of the audit itself.
Where audits usually find the quick wins
Every business is different, but the leaks tend to cluster around the same kinds of task. Audits commonly surface opportunities to automate invoice processing and data entry from PDFs, to turn meetings into written notes and actions automatically, to speed up proposal and quote writing, to cut the time spent hunting for information the team already has, and to take manual reporting off senior people's plates. These are examples of the sort of thing an audit tends to flag, not a fixed menu, and not work we've promised. The point of the audit is to find your version of them.
What it costs
Straight answer: the audit is deliberately the low-commitment step, priced well below a build, precisely so it isn't a barrier to finding out. We don't publish a single figure because the scope flexes with the size of the business and how many processes you want us to look at: a tightly focused audit of one area sits lower; a broader look across the whole business sits higher. When we quote, it's scoped and agreed up front, with no surprises. And because most clients find quick wins worth far more than the audit costs, it tends to pay for itself in the plan it produces.
Common questions
Not much of your time. Most of the effort is ours. We usually need a few short conversations with you and the people who do the work, plus a representative look at how tasks really move through the business. That's enough to see where the hours go, not a full documentation exercise. We work around your team's calendar rather than the other way round, so it doesn't pull people off their day jobs. If it helps to see a handful of real examples (a typical proposal, a reporting task, the admin that eats a Monday), that's the kind of thing that makes the findings sharper.
No. The audit is designed to stand on its own. You come away with a prioritised opportunity list, rough ROI estimates, and a 90-day plan that are yours to act on however you like, with us, with someone else, or in-house. Plenty of clients use the audit to make the case internally before deciding anything. There's no obligation to build, and no pressure to. If the findings point to something worth doing, we'll be glad to build it; if you'd rather take the plan and run, that's a perfectly good outcome too.
Then we'll say so, plainly. Sometimes the honest answer is "not yet": the processes aren't settled enough, or the work you'd hand over is genuinely one-off rather than repeatable. That's still a useful result: you've spent a small amount to avoid spending a large amount on something that wouldn't have paid off. We'd rather tell you to wait than sell you a build you don't need. If that's where we land, the plan will usually flag what needs to change first, so you know what "ready" would look like.
Yes. If you already have a hunch about where the pain is (the sales pipeline, the finance admin, one team's reporting), we can focus the audit there rather than sweeping the whole business. A tighter scope means a faster, cheaper diagnostic. Equally, if you want a broad view across everything to see where the biggest returns sit, we can do that instead. We'll agree the scope with you up front so you know exactly what's covered before we start.
Start with a straight answer
If AI has been on your list but you've never had a clear place to start, the audit is it. Tell us a little about your business and what you're hoping to solve, and we'll be in touch within two working days. Every enquiry comes straight to Ben. No call centres, no sales sequences.
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