03 · AI Strategy · Assessment
Know where AI fits before you spend on it.
A fixed-fee assessment for organizations that want a plan before a purchase. We spend a week on site, map your workflows and systems, baseline the hours, and rank what is worth doing. Leadership gets a roadmap it can fund. If you want someone to own it after, we stay on as your fractional chief AI officer.
- 4 to 6 weeks
- fixed fee, stated in writing up front
- Onsite week
- interviews and shadowing in every department
- Baselined
- hours per process, at your staff rate
- Ranked
- a roadmap ordered by return and effort
01What we look at
The whole operation, not only the tools.
Most AI plans start from a product. This one starts from how the work moves today, so the roadmap is ranked against your hours and your priorities.
Workflows
How the work actually moves: who touches it, how often, how long it takes, and where it waits.
Systems and data
Every tool you pay for, how data moves between them, and the manual hops in between.
People and skills
Who already uses AI, who wants to, and who would own an automation once it ships.
Policy and risk
What staff may put into AI tools today, and what your contracts, funders, and regulators require.
Software spend
What you pay for, what overlaps, and what a consolidation would save.
Leadership priorities
What leadership needs to be true in a year, so the roadmap is ranked against it.
02How it runs
An intake, a week on site, four check-ins, a readout.
Every draft is corrected by your team before it is final, so the roadmap describes your organization, not a template.
Step 01: Intake before we arrive
Access, exports, and a short intake each department lead completes ahead of time, so the onsite week starts on the real questions.
Step 02: Onsite week
Interviews, shadowing, and system walkthroughs across every department, scheduled around your work. Before we leave: a 90-day quick wins memo.
Step 03: Four working check-ins
Weekly sessions, each built around a draft your team corrects live: the systems map, the baseline, the opportunity ranking, the roadmap.
Step 04: Roadmap and readout
Final deliverables and an in-person readout to leadership in plain language, built for decisions, plus a handoff session for your staff.
03 · What you get
A roadmap you can fund, and the numbers behind it.
- A systems and data flow map, editable, in your own tools
- Hours baselined for each process worth automating, valued at your staff rate
- An AI opportunity ranking: return, effort, readiness, and risk for each use case
- A roadmap with 90-day and 12-month actions, owners, and cost ranges
- Governance recommendations: who owns each system and what your AI use policy should say
- A 90-day quick wins memo, delivered at the end of the onsite week
What it costs
A fixed fee, stated in writing before anything starts, set by the number of departments and sites involved rather than by the hour. You can stop after the readout with everything in hand.
The hours in the baseline become the first entries in the Savings Ledger. How the Savings Ledger works
04After the roadmap
Each item names who should build it.
You own the roadmap and can take it anywhere. When you want help, these are the three paths it points to.
Your team builds
AI Training
Cohort
Four to twelve of your people build the roadmap items themselves over twelve weeks, with our coaching.
Built with you
Automation & Apps
CoBuild
We build the items with your stakeholders in the room and up to four of your people at the keyboard, on accounts you own.
We stay on
Fractional CAIO
Monthly agreement
We own the roadmap with you: the vendor and policy calls, keeping what was built running, and the Savings Ledger every month. Month to month, two weeks’ notice.
Common questions
How is this different from the free readiness check?
The readiness check is eight questions you answer about yourselves in a few minutes, and it tells you roughly where you stand. The assessment is four to six weeks of watching the work, reading your systems, and timing the processes, and it ends with a roadmap you can fund.
What does it cost?
A fixed fee, stated in writing before anything starts. It is set by the number of departments and sites involved, not by the hour. One call is usually enough to give you the number.
Who on our side needs to be involved?
Leadership for the kickoff and the readout, each department lead for a short intake and an interview during the onsite week, and one point person who can arrange access.
Where does the work happen?
The intake and the four check-ins are remote. The onsite week and the leadership readout are in person, across Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse, and the Finger Lakes.
What happens after the roadmap?
You own it and can take it anywhere. If you want help, each item names the right path: your team builds it in a Cohort, we build it with you in CoBuild, or we stay on as your fractional chief AI officer.
Can a nonprofit use this?
Yes. Start at 501 Labs, whose Blocks are free. When a nonprofit needs a paid assessment for a board or a funder, Civic Dialog does the work at nonprofit rates, and the measured savings are reported to the 501 Labs scoreboard.
Who does the work
The person who scopes the work does the work.
Civic Dialog is a small practice. Our founder scopes every engagement, builds or coaches the build, and reads the Savings Ledger with you, so nothing gets lost between the first call and the finished work.
Erik OehlerFounder, Civic Dialog
- 20 years
- across technology, data strategy, and organizational development
- B.S. and MBA
- computer science, then business
- Salesforce
- former administrator who built and led enterprise automations and integrations
- $12,453
- saved or generated for nonprofits so far through 501 Labs, the nonprofit our founder started
Ask about an assessment.
Thirty minutes on a call. We will tell you what an assessment would cover for your organization, what it costs, and who would need to be involved.
Prefer email? erik@civic-dialog.com