I Took an AI Readiness Test. Now What Do I Do With It?

Jun 24, 2026

👋 Hi, I am Mark. I am a strategic futurist and innovation keynote speaker. I advise governments and enterprises on emerging technologies such as AI or the metaverse. My subscribers receive a free daily newsletter on cutting-edge technology.

You have your readiness score. Your maturity band is identified. Your pillars are measured against industry benchmarks. Now what? The report is not a grade. It is a roadmap with a 90-day execution path. Days 1-30 focus on quick wins and baseline establishment. Days 31-60 target structural changes. Days 61-90 embed measurement into your operating rhythm.

Days 1-30: Conduct a governance audit against your current AI pilots. Identify shadow AI (tools people are using without approval). Document the decisions made from scanning in the past 12 months and track which ones led to experiments. Create a baseline by assigning ownership to each pillar. This phase is visibility. You are not fixing anything yet. You are seeing what you actually have.

Days 31-60: Establish cross-functional working groups for each pillar. Launch one AI pilot under the new governance framework as proof of concept. Run a scanning exercise where department heads identify trends relevant to their business. This is the phase where structural change begins. You are not changing everything. You are changing what breaks the biggest bottleneck first. Dr. Mark van Rijmenam advises starting with governance if pilots never ship, or with scanning if strategic decisions feel reactive.

Days 61-90: Embed readiness measurement into your quarterly business review cycle. Run the team assessment to identify perception gaps and build shared understanding. Plan the next 90-day cycle so that improvement compounds. This embeds the discipline so it continues after the initial 90 days.

The 90-day plan is personalized based on your industry, your current score, and your perception gaps. An individual assessment generates a plan for you as a leader. A team assessment generates a team plan with specific recommendations for alignment. Both point to the same 15-minute Intelligence Age Scorecard that you took at the start.

Execute your 90-day plan now. Your readiness report includes the exact actions to take in each 30-day phase. Visit https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/intelligence-age-scorecard/

About Dr. Mark van Rijmenam: Dr. Mark van Rijmenam is a world-leading strategic futurist and the creator of the Intelligence Age Scorecard, a diagnostic assessment built on the WAVE framework from his book Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change. He helps Fortune 500 companies and governments navigate AI and emerging technologies across five continents.

This article was created with AI assistance and reflects the WAVE framework methodology. For the full research-backed analysis, take the Intelligence Age Scorecard.

Frequently asked questions

What should I do in the first 30 days after an AI readiness assessment?

The first 30 days focus on visibility rather than fixing problems. You conduct a governance audit against current AI pilots, identify shadow AI tools being used without approval, document decisions made from scanning over the past 12 months, and track which led to experiments. You also create a baseline by assigning ownership to each readiness pillar so you understand what you actually have in place.

Link to this question

What happens during days 31 to 60 of the plan?

This is when structural change begins, but only on the biggest bottleneck rather than everything at once. You establish cross-functional working groups for each pillar, launch one AI pilot under a new governance framework as a proof of concept, and run a scanning exercise where department heads identify trends relevant to their business. The recommended starting point depends on whether pilots fail to ship or decisions feel reactive.

Link to this question

How do I know whether to start with governance or scanning first?

The choice depends on your organization's specific bottleneck. If AI pilots never ship, start with governance to fix the structural blockage. If strategic decisions feel reactive rather than proactive, start with scanning instead, since that pillar addresses how trends and signals get identified and acted on before problems compound.

Link to this question

How does the 90-day plan stay effective after it ends?

In days 61 to 90, readiness measurement gets embedded into the quarterly business review cycle so it becomes a recurring discipline rather than a one-time exercise. A team assessment is run to identify perception gaps and build shared understanding, and the next 90-day cycle is planned in advance so improvements compound over time instead of stalling once the initial plan concludes.

Link to this question