How do I know if my company is ready for AI?
You need three things: clean, accessible data relevant to your use case; technical infrastructure that can support model deployment; and at least one executive sponsor who understands AI's limitations. Most companies overestimate their data readiness and underestimate the organizational change required.
What's the biggest barrier to AI adoption?
Data quality. Most organizations have data spread across siloed systems with inconsistent formats, missing values, and no clear ownership. Fixing data foundations typically takes 2–4 months and is the single most valuable pre-AI investment.
Can small companies use AI effectively?
Yes - especially with pre-trained models and APIs. A 50-person company can deploy AI-powered customer support, document processing, or demand forecasting using services like OpenAI, Google Cloud AI, or AWS Bedrock without building models from scratch.