Beta Launch – Data Foundations for AI
A free assessment to help you figure out whether your data is ready for AI
Recently I’ve been working with IT and data leaders who all feel a similar tension:
They’re interested in AI, they have real use cases, and some of them already have pilots in motion.
But when they zoom in on what has to be true for AI to work safely and consistently in their organizations, the conversation inevitably turns to their data. They have it, for sure, but they’re not sure whether an AI system actually find it, understand it, trust it, and use it without stepping on a landmine.
That’s why we built DF4AI, and why we’re launching it in beta today!
What DF4AI is
DF4AI (Data Foundations for AI) is a short self-assessment designed to give you a clear picture of your organization’s readiness for AI and AI agents. It takes about ten minutes and walks you through 30 focused questions. At the end, you get an overall readiness score and dimension-level scoring so you can see where you’re solid and where the cracks are starting to show.
Our hope is that this can serve as a reality check on the underlying conditions that determine whether AI will help or harm your organization.
What DF4AI measures
DF4AI looks at five dimensions that form the foundation upon which more trustworthy AI can be built.
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Data Architecture & Accessibility — can the right data be found and used without heroics?
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Data Quality & Trust — is the data good enough that automation won’t confidently do the wrong thing?
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Data Governance & Stewardship — are the rules, controls, and decision rights in place to keep AI safe and compliant?
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Data Documentation & Metadata — can humans and machines understand the meaning of the data and where it came from?
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Data Literacy & Culture — do people actually use data well enough for AI to stick, improve, and scale?
Under the hood, the assessment maps responses to maturity levels and scoring bands, so results are consistent and comparable over time.
Do you like the icons?? We really do. They were created for us by Alli Torban, our multi-talented Sr. Data Literacy Advocate, who we’re very lucky to get to work with.
Who should take it
If you’re a CIO, CDO, Head of Data/Analytics/AI, an IT leader responsible for platforms and integrations, or a BI/data product leader who knows where the bodies are buried, then you’re the target audience.
Right now, only one person can take it, but the best use is to complete it and then review the results with a small group across data + IT + analytics. You’ll immediately see where you agree, where you don’t, and what needs to be clarified before AI projects get bigger. Eventually, we plan to add functionality to create team-based assessments, so organizations can to collect responses from multiple people, and then see aggregated results.
A quick note on privacy
Because this is a readiness assessment, people understandably ask what happens to their responses.
The DF4AI privacy policy spells out what we collect and how it’s used, including the fact that any benchmarking we publish is anonymized and aggregated — no identifiable answers, no company attribution. Ever. Also, you can sign in using Gmail, and give your assessment whatever name you want. You can also fully delete the assessment (and your account) at any time.
Give the beta a test drive!
DF4AI is live at df4ai.com. If you’re willing to take it for a spin and tell us what feels confusing, what feels missing, or what you’d change, I’d genuinely appreciate it.
And if you hit any issues during the beta, reach out as we’ll be capturing a list of bugs to fix.
Thanks as always,
Ben Jones
P.S. Here’s a sneak peek at what the final report looks like. You can review it on the website any time you like, or you can download the report in a nice PDF format. On top of that, you can download a CSV of the full assessment.
