// Glossary · general

AI Strategy Audit

A half-day workshop and written roadmap that maps a company AI opportunities to its stack, team, and goals with prioritized recommendations.

The AI Strategy Audit is EOI standard front-door engagement: a half-day workshop with the founding team plus a written roadmap delivered inside a week. The workshop maps the existing stack (CRM, help desk, marketing tools, internal systems), the team shape (who owns what, where the bottlenecks are), the workload profile (where time and money actually go), and the next-12-month goals. Output is a prioritized list of AI opportunities scored on impact and feasibility, plus a sequencing plan. Book the full engagement on the AI Strategy Audit page or read the broader frame on the AI consultancy page.

What the audit is not: a generic 'here are 47 things AI can do for your business' deck. The output is a 15 to 25 page document specific to the company, with the top 3 to 5 opportunities scoped tight enough that a fractional AI department could pick one up and ship inside a 14-day sprint. Recommendations name the systems, the workflows, the success metrics, and the integration constraints. The roadmap orders the opportunities by sequencing logic, not just by ROI score, because shipping the wrong thing first usually blocks the next two.

The reason this is the front door instead of an immediate department engagement is that most teams under 50 employees do not yet know which department to ship first. Sales-led teams sometimes need ops or support before sales. Content-led teams sometimes need analytics before content. The audit lets us be honest about that ordering before either side commits to a multi-month retainer. About 30% of audit outputs include 'do not hire EOI for X yet, here is what to do first.' That posture is why audit-to-engagement conversion sits around 65% with the engagements that close having a much higher success rate.

// Examples
  • A Series A SaaS books an audit assuming they need AI Sales. The audit finds the bigger leak is in support, where 18-hour after-hours reply times are driving churn that hides the broken sales motion. The team ships AI Support Department first. Sales follows three months later when the churn stabilizes.
  • A bootstrapped agency books an audit for content automation. The audit reveals the team is leaving 40% of inbound demo requests unscored. Recommendation orders lead scoring and CRM hygiene before content automation. ROI on the first sprint runs 7x because they fixed the leak before pouring water in.
  • A regulated fintech books an audit and learns their workload requires on-device deployment, not a cloud department. The audit pivots to a local agent setup scope and saves the team eight weeks of evaluating cloud vendors that would have failed compliance review.
// Common questions
What does the audit cost?
Fixed fee, sized smaller than a one-month retainer on any of the departments. The exact number lives on the booking page. Audit fee credits against the first month of any engagement that follows, so teams that move forward pay no net premium for the audit.
How long is the audit engagement end-to-end?
Half-day workshop in week one, written roadmap delivered by end of week one or start of week two. From booking to deliverable is typically 7 to 10 days. The team gets time to read the roadmap and ask questions before any commitment to a follow-on engagement.
What if the audit says we do not need EOI?
Then the audit says that. About 30% of outputs include a "do not hire EOI for X yet" recommendation, usually because something upstream needs fixing first. The team gets a roadmap they can execute internally or with another partner. EOI takes the audit fee and moves on. No high-pressure pivot to a different engagement.
Who runs the audit on the EOI side?
Roy runs every audit personally. Not a junior consultant, not a sales rep, not a templated workshop. The workshop and the written output come from the operator who would scope the follow-on engagement. That continuity is why the engagements that follow ship fast: no rebuilding context between audit and sprint.
// Related terms
// Ready to ship?

EOI runs fractional AI departments for funded teams under 50. Sales, Content, Ops, Support. Live in 14 days on a monthly retainer.

Apply for a sprint →See all departments →