The AI Workbook

Most companies buy AI before they know whether they are ready for it. This workbook makes you find out first. You have heard the pitches. Automate your back office. Cut your costs. Move faster than your competitors. What almost nobody tells you is the order in which any of it has to happen — or what it costs when you get that order wrong. The AI Workbook is a short, practical scoring guide for owners and operators of staffing agencies, offshore delivery teams and professional services firms. It is built around one idea: before you spend a dollar on automation, you should be able to say out loud where your business actually stands. Inside you will find: The Four Readiness Signals — data, process, people and leadership — and how to score your business honestly on each one The sequencing mistake, the single most expensive error small firms make with automation, and how to see it coming Three worked vantage points from real operating contexts: a staffing back office, an offshore delivery workflow and an HR-compliance buyer Blank scorecards you can fill in for your own business, department by department A 90-day plan — and an honest account of what happens after day 90, including what failure looks like A plain-language glossary so you never have to nod along to a vendor again This is a workbook, not a manifesto. There are no predictions about the future of work and no case studies about companies a thousand times your size. There are tables you fill in, questions you answer, and a score at the end that tells you whether to move, wait, or fix something first. Written by Srikanth Merianda, who has spent nearly three decades building IT and healthcare staffing, offshore delivery and HR technology businesses — and who has watched more automation projects fail from bad sequencing than from bad technology. If you are being sold AI right now, read this before you sign anything.