How do I know if my business is ready for automation?

If you can name a repetitive process, describe its steps, access the systems it uses and measure it, you are ready to start with one workflow.

What should I automate first?

The process with the most obviously wasteful manual step and the clearest way to measure improvement.

How many questions is it?

Twelve, grouped into five areas: process repeatability, data and systems, standardization, team and ownership, and impact and budget. It takes about two minutes.

How is the score worked out?

Each area is scored from your answers and then weighted: process repeatability and data and systems count 25% each, standardization 20%, and team and ownership and impact and budget 15% each. The weighted total is your score out of 100.

What do I get at the end?

A score out of 100 with a band telling you whether to standardize first or start with a pilot, a breakdown across the five areas, what to automate first, what to fix first, and a PDF report you can keep.

Is anything I enter stored?

No. The quiz runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to us unless you ask for the report by email.

Free Tool

Automation Readiness Quiz

Should you automate that process — and which one first? Answer 12 quick questions for a readiness score, what to automate first, what to fix first, and your next step.

2-minute quiz
Runs in your browser
Keepable PDF report

0/100

Answer the questions to begin

Your score updates as you answer. Complete all 12 for your full report.

Ready to automate what this quiz flagged? Parix.ai builds the workflows.

Book a free consultation →

Before you spend anything

Most failed automation projects were process problems

They were not automation problems. A tool got dropped into a process nobody had settled, and the tool got the blame.

This checks whether the groundwork exists first. Answer honestly — a low score is more useful than a high one, because it names what to fix before you spend.

What makes a process ready

Five things, and the last one is the one that decides whether you get funded for a second project, however well the first goes.

It repeats often — daily or weekly, not once a quarter.
The steps are stable. If they change every time, the automation breaks every time.
You can describe it without saying “it depends”, and the systems can be connected.
You can measure it — before and after. Miss this one and you cannot prove anything afterwards.

Think of one process. Tick what is true today.

It repeats oftenDaily or weekly

The steps are stableNot redesigned each time

Describable without "it depends"Rules exist

The systems can connectAPIs or exports

You can measure itBefore and after

Five checks. The last one decides whether project two gets funded

What to automate first

The process where the manual step is most obviously wasteful and easiest to measure. Not the most complex, and not the most impressive.

The first automation is as much about proving the approach as it is about the process.
Frequent and stable is the corner to pick from — impressive and occasional is the corner that kills programmes.
A clear, defensible result buys you the second project. A clever one that nobody can measure does not.

Two candidates, same effort

The impressive one

RunsMonthly

StepsChange each time

MeasurableHard

Risky

The boring one

RunsDaily

StepsStable

MeasurableEasily

Pick this

The boring one proves the approach. The impressive one is project three, once you have credibility.

When not to automate

Worth saying out loud, because the honest answer is sometimes no — and hearing it before the spend is considerably cheaper than after.

If it runs a handful of times a month, it rarely pays back.
If the steps change constantly, maintenance will exceed the manual cost.
If nobody can describe it clearly, you are automating a disagreement, not a process.

Three reasons to stop here

Runs a few times a monthWill not pay back

Steps change constantlyMaintenance exceeds the saving

Nobody can describe itSettle the rules first

Fix the process first. The tool is the easy part

What the score actually tells you

The band matters more than the number. A low score is a to-do list, not a verdict — it names the specific thing standing between you and a project that works.

No baseline measured? Measure time and errors for two weeks first.
Exceptions living in one person’s head? Write rules for the common ones before anyone builds.
If you ask for the emailed summary it posts your scores and a generated PDF — the answers themselves are not sent otherwise.

Readiness score

7/12Fixable gaps

Twelve questions across four dimensions

0612

Not yet

Fixable gaps

Ready

A low score names what to fix first, which is more useful than a high one.

The short version

Four numbers worth keeping

Conditions a process must meet before automating it.

Questions, across four dimensions.

Weeks of baseline measurement if you have none.

101

Free tools on Parix.ai, none of them behind a sign-up.

Free, and staying free

Why Parix.ai gives this away

We would rather tell you a process is not ready than take the work and have it fail. This is the conversation we have before quoting, on a public page — which is why there is no paywall and no sign-up.

Take the quiz

Who uses it

Operations leads deciding where to start, and founders checking whether the timing is right before committing budget to a first project.

Pair it with

Price the manual work with the Repetitive Task Cost Estimator, then get a payback period from the Automation ROI Calculator. For the broader question, the AI Readiness Assessment covers data and skills too.

When the groundwork is there

Our workflow automation team builds it — starting with the boring, frequent, measurable process rather than the impressive one.