AI Opportunity Audit
Know where AI will pay off, and where it won't
A two-week, fixed-fee review that finds where AI will actually earn its place in your business, and ends with a costed roadmap and a first system worth building, not a strategy deck that gathers dust.
Why audit first
Most projects fail because they start with a solution and look for a problem. The Audit flips that. We find the problems worth solving before a line of code gets written.
Every Audit ends with a clear, evidence-based recommendation. If the return on building doesn't justify the investment, we'll tell you. That's what you're paying us for.
Is it right for you?
For when you can't yet name the one thing to fix
Book the Audit if
- You know AI could help somewhere but can't yet name where it pays off.
- You're weighing an AI build and want evidence before you commit the budget.
- You've got competing AI ideas internally and need an objective, costed steer on which to back.
Skip it if
- You already know exactly which process is bleeding hours. Book a pilot instead.
- You know exactly what product you want built. Go straight to a product build.
How it works
Two weeks, four focused stages: from the first conversation to a report you can act on.
Intake
A 30-minute call to understand your operations, pain points, and existing systems. We map the landscape before we start digging.
Discovery
We interview key people, shadow workflows, and review the tools and data that run your business. Two weeks of focused, on-site or remote investigation.
Analysis
We identify where AI would create the most leverage across your operations, and just as importantly where it wouldn't. Every opportunity is sized and prioritised.
Report
A written report and a presentation. Clear next steps. If we think the case for building isn't there, we'll say that too.
What you get
Clarity you can act on
Six deliverables, documented clearly so you can see exactly where AI fits, what's worth building, and why.
Opportunity Map
The core artefact: a scored landscape of where AI can create real leverage across your operations, each opportunity rated on impact and feasibility. The centrepiece that answers “where’s the biggest AI opportunity?”
Build / Don’t-Build Recommendations
Clear calls on what’s worth building now, what to defer, and what to leave alone entirely, including where off-the-shelf tools beat anything custom. Telling you where not to spend is what makes the rest of our advice credible.
Technical & Data Readiness Assessment
An honest read on whether your data, systems, and integration points can actually support what you want to do. AI projects die on data quality and plumbing, not ideas, so we flag the blockers before you’ve spent a penny on the build.
Costed Delivery Roadmap
A phased plan with sequencing, indicative effort, and rough cost per phase. The path from where you are to something shipped, framed in stages rather than one scary number.
Recommended First Build
The single highest-leverage thing to build first, scoped tightly enough to convert directly into a proposal: the shape of your next engagement.
Executive Readout
A live session walking you through the findings, plus the written summary document you keep. A premium engagement ends with us in the room explaining the thinking, not a PDF landing silently in an inbox.
What happens next
Where the audit leads
The audit ends with a recommendation, not an obligation. Depending on what we find, the right next step is usually one of two things.
Build the system
A full AI system build
When the opportunity is substantial, we scope and build the recommended AI system, priced from the audit's findings. Your audit fee comes off it in full, so the audit effectively costs nothing.
Prove it first
A 30-day pilot
When the smart move is to prove a single workflow before scaling, we start with a fixed-scope pilot. The audit credits £1,750 against it.
See the 30-day pilotAnd sometimes the honest recommendation is to build nothing at all. That's a valid outcome too, and knowing it before you spend is exactly what the audit is for.
A worked example
What an audit can surface
An illustrative shape of what an audit can find, not a real client engagement.
A services business was convinced it needed a new, custom CRM. Deals were slipping, the team was drowning, and a six-figure rebuild felt like the obvious fix.
The audit looked at where the hours actually went, and the CRM wasn't the problem. The leak was upstream: every enquiry was re-keyed by hand across three systems, and quotes were assembled manually from scattered spreadsheets. The roadmap sequenced a single automation pilot first, at a fraction of the rebuild's cost, and deferred the CRM until the data was clean enough to justify it.
The audit paid for itself many times over by stopping the wrong build before it started, and pointing to a first move that could prove itself in weeks.
At a glance
£3,500
Cost to find out
~£80,000
Wrong build it stopped
30 days
To the first proven win instead
What it's worth
The expensive mistake is the build that should never have started
A wrong first build doesn't cost £3,500. It costs the £30k, £80k, sometimes £150k you spend proving it was wrong, plus the months you don't get back.
The audit is the cheapest insurance against that: £3,500 to know which build will pay off and which to walk away from, before you commit a penny to either. And if you go ahead, it costs nothing, because the fee comes straight off the build.
£3,500
to find out what's worth building
£0
net cost if you build, credited in full
Proof
What our clients say
“Our vision was completely understood and our goals became Forta Studio's goals. The end result is nothing short of incredible.”
Sean Brattley
Founder, MerchantLink
“Proper quality work from people who clearly care about what they put their name to.”
Harley Sanders
Founder, Incus Audio
Fixed-fee engagement
£3,500+ VAT
Fixed fee. Scoped to a fortnight.
Credited in full against a full AI system build, or £1,750 against a 30-day pilot.
Credit applies if a build agreement is signed within 60 days of receiving your audit.
We only take on a few audits a month
Each one gets senior attention for the full fortnight. That's the only way the report is worth acting on. When the month is full, it's full.
FAQ
Questions, answered
What if you find nothing worth building?
Do I have to build with you?
How much of my team's time does it take?
What if I already know what I want?
Is it on-site or remote?
Book an Audit
Pick a time to talk it through
A free discovery call to discuss an AI Opportunity Audit and whether it's the right next step for you.
Prefer to reach out first? Get in touch via the contact form.