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The paid front door

Pay $7,500 to avoid a $100,000 mistake.

The AI Readiness Scorecard is our paid diagnostic. We analyze your operation, your data, your team, and your tech stack, then tell you the one to three automations worth building, the ones worth skipping, and whether your business is ready for AI at all. If it isn't, we'll tell you that too.

Why we charge for discovery

Free discovery is a sales call with a spreadsheet.

Most AI agencies give away discovery for free. Here's what that actually means: their sales team runs you through a generic pitch, tells you everything looks great, and hands you a “roadmap” that justifies the build they already wanted to sell you.

That's not discovery. That's a sales call with a spreadsheet.

Real discovery takes real work. A week of our time (walking your operation, reviewing your data, meeting your team, stress-testing the business case) is worth paying for. It's also the only way we can honestly tell you whether AI is worth it for your business right now.

We charge because our honesty has to be protected. If we told you yes when the answer was no, we'd lose the next client who asked us why the first one's project didn't work. The paid gate is how we keep the work straight.

What you get

Six concrete deliverables. Written down. Yours.

You walk away with a written report, a live walkthrough session, and every artifact we used to reach our recommendation.

01

Prioritized automation roadmap

One to three automations, ranked by expected return. Specific to your business, not generic use cases.

02

Your AI Impact Quadrant

Every candidate automation we considered, plotted on business value × ability to execute. See the quick wins. See what to skip.

03

Readiness assessment

Which of your data, systems, and team are set up to benefit today, and which need work before automation is viable.

04

Baselines and targets

For each recommended automation: what you're measuring today, what we expect to see after deployment, what success looks like.

05

Timeline and fee estimate

If the Scorecard says go, you get a scoped build proposal with specific agents, timelines, and fees.

06

Go / no-go / not-yet call

A written recommendation on whether you should proceed. No hedging.

The methodology

Five phases. Two to six weeks. Real work, not a questionnaire.

This is what the fee is buying: structured discovery executed by operators, delivered in writing.

PHASE 01

Intake

Structured interviews with you and your key team members. We're mapping the operation, not collecting your opinions on AI.

PHASE 02

Data review

We look at your actual systems (ERP, CRM, ops tools, data quality), not your slides. This is where most "readiness" gaps show up.

PHASE 03

Candidate identification

We list 8 to 12 automations worth considering for your business, drawn from our sector playbooks.

PHASE 04

AI Impact Quadrant analysis

Every candidate scored on business value × ability to execute. The quick wins separate from the phase-2 bets separate from the deprioritize pile.

PHASE 05

Deliverable

Written report, the quadrant, the go/no-go. Presented in a 60-minute working session with you and anyone on your team who needs to see it.

What happens after

Three possible answers. All of them honest.

Most firms only tell you one of these: the one that leads to a sale. We'll give you whichever one is true.

GO

Your business is ready.

Here are the one to three automations worth starting with, in priority order. We can start the build within 30 days of Scorecard delivery, or you can take the report and run it with another partner. It's yours.

NOT YET

Not ready today. Here's what to fix first.

Most clients in this bucket are three to six months of data cleanup, process documentation, or team alignment away from being ready. You leave with a punch list, not a no.

NO

AI isn't the right move. Here's why.

It happens. We'll tell you, we'll tell you why, and we'll tell you what would change our answer. Sometimes the right answer is to fix the fundamentals first, or to spend the budget somewhere else entirely.

Fit check

Who this is for, and who it isn't.

We turn away work we can't win with. That discipline is why our engagements land.

● GOOD FIT
  • $2M–$50M revenue SMB with a real operational bottleneck
  • Manufacturing, professional services, agencies, or financial services
  • Owner-operated or owner-led, growth-minded
  • Has operational data, even if it's messy
  • Willing to spend money to save money
○ NOT A FIT
  • Under $2M revenue: the math on a paid diagnostic doesn't pencil for you yet
  • Pre-revenue or early-stage startup: we need operational history to analyze
  • No documented processes or data at all: we can't assess what doesn't exist
  • Looking for a vendor to white-label or resell: we're a direct delivery firm
What it costs

$7,500 to $30,000. Scoped before you commit.

The Scorecard fee depends on three things: your business size, your operational complexity, and the state of your existing data and tech stack. A $5M manufacturer with a clean ERP lands at the low end. A $40M services firm with six disconnected systems and three offices lands at the high end.

We scope the exact fee during the free discovery call, before you commit to anything. If the number doesn't work for your budget, we tell you before you sign. You'll never be surprised by the price.

And, if you sign a build engagement within 60 days of Scorecard delivery, 25% of the Scorecard fee credits against the build. A soft incentive to move quickly.

Frequently asked

Questions we hear before the paid gate.

If yours isn't here, a 30-minute discovery call is the fastest path to an answer.

Two to six weeks from kickoff to deliverable, depending on complexity and your team's availability. We work around your calendar, not ours.

Ready to start

Start with a conversation.

A 30-minute discovery call is the first step. We'll talk about your operation, tell you whether the Scorecard is the right next move, and scope the fee on the call, so you know exactly what you're signing up for before you decide.

No pitch. No pressure. No slides.

Tom Poole
FOUNDER, SMARTAGENTS