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A free tool · For the person who runs the place

The AI skills that actually run a business.

Not prompt tricks. The twelve things that decide whether AI makes your business money or just makes you feel behind. Daily use, judging what it gives you, knowing what is safe to put into it, and what it changes in marketing, sales, operations and finance.

Score yourself honestly against five written levels. The point is finding the ones you are quietly faking, because those are the expensive ones.

Free, and it stays free. No sign-up, no email, no paywall halfway through. It runs in your browser and nothing leaves this page unless you choose to share it.

AI fluency: 3 (role asks for 4)Hands-on daily use: 4 (role asks for 5)Judging AI output: 3 (role asks for 4)Data and privacy: 2 (role asks for 3)Marketing and content: 4 (role asks for 5)Sales and customer service: 3 (role asks for 4)Operations and admin: 4 (role asks for 5)Finance and the numbers: 2 (role asks for 3)Picking the right problems: 3 (role asks for 4)Team AI upskilling: 4 (role asks for 5)Process redesign: 3 (role asks for 4)Responsible use: 2 (role asks for 3)

Twelve petals, one per skill. The pale outline is where you are heading next.

What it covers

12 competencies, each with five written levels, so you are picking the paragraph that sounds like your week rather than guessing at a number.

  • AI fluency
  • Hands-on daily use
  • Judging AI output
  • Data and privacy
  • Marketing and content
  • Sales and customer service
  • Operations and admin
  • Finance and the numbers
  • Picking the right problems
  • Team AI upskilling
  • Process redesign
  • Responsible use

What you measure against

Your scores get held against the real profile of each role, so the gap you see is the gap to a job rather than to an average.

  • Owner-operator, it's just me
  • Owner with a small team
  • Owner of a growing business

Who it is for

Owners who know AI should be doing more and keep putting it off

Anyone paying for tools nobody in the business actually opens

Owners about to spend real money on AI who want to know where the gaps are first

People who are good with AI in one corner of the business and nowhere else

What you walk away with

An honest read on twelve areas rather than a general feeling of being behind

The specific areas to fix first, ranked

A link you can send a partner or a manager so they score you too and you compare

A route straight into the six week challenge for the gaps that need practice

Who made this

I spent twenty years building product teams, most recently as VP Product at the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchisor, and I now work with businesses and people on product, AI and careers from Vancouver. These are the levels I used to run real development conversations, refined over years of using them, not a framework I found in a book.

Fill it in and send it to me if you want a second read. I read them myself and reply.

Next in the same garden

The 6 Week AI Challenge for business ownersSix weeks of small experiments, each week a different way of using it.AI readiness assessmentThe same read across every department, with other people scoring too.One-page business planYour whole business on one printable page, fed by what you have already filled in.

Know exactly where you stand.

It takes about the length of a cup of tea, and nothing is stored anywhere.

Gourdanen · Vancouver, Canada · Back to the garden · Privacy