This guide covers an AI opportunity audit: deciding where AI could help your business. It is not a formal assessment of an AI system’s compliance or certification.
Start with a business problem
An AI audit should help you make a decision. Start with a process that takes too long, creates repeated errors or makes information difficult to find. Agree who uses it and what a useful improvement would look like.
Map the work before choosing technology
Document the trigger, inputs, systems, handoffs and outcome. Speak to the people doing the work. Ask what happens when information is missing, an exception arrives or the usual person is unavailable. A process diagram should describe the real workflow, including its awkward parts.
Review the information and access
Identify which sources are authoritative, whether records are current and who is allowed to access them. Check integration options and the effort needed to prepare representative data. An assistant cannot reliably resolve conflicting records just because it can read them.
Separate AI tasks from ordinary automation
Language-heavy work, such as interpreting an email, may suit AI. Copying a validated field between systems may only need an integration. The audit should explain that choice for each step rather than recommending AI everywhere.
Make the business case inspectable
Record current volume, handling time and exceptions. Estimate the effort to build, operate and maintain a proposed system, and label assumptions. Time released is capacity, not automatically a cash saving. Decide how the team would use it.
Define controls and success measures
Agree what the system can do, which actions need approval and what should happen when it is uncertain. Use representative examples to define acceptable outputs and unacceptable failures. Include the person accountable for operating the workflow.
Leave with a decision-ready plan
Ask for a workflow map, a prioritised opportunity list and a scoped first project. That scope should identify dependencies, responsibilities, evaluation criteria and a handover plan. You should understand what can start now, what needs preparation and what is not worth pursuing.
Questions to ask before commissioning an audit
Which people and systems will you review? What documents will we receive? How will you assess value and feasibility? Can we choose not to proceed with implementation? Agree scope, fee and deliverables before work begins.