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SPARK Assessment + Discovery Bundle

Before you spend another pound on AI,
find out where your zeros are.

SPARK is Ignite AI's bundled AI discovery audit for UK SMEs. 18-dimension readiness assessment, human capability mapping, and a nine-seat adversarial advisory board pressure-test. From £5,000. 4 to 6 weeks. Delivered by Chris Duffy directly.

What is the SPARK Assessment?

SPARK is Ignite AI's structured AI discovery audit for UK SMEs. Over 4 to 6 weeks, Chris assesses 18 dimensions of your organisation's AI readiness across five groups: Strategic Foundation, Leadership and Culture, Governance and Ethics, Capability and Enablement, and Implementation and Scaling.

It answers a single question: will AI actually work in your business, and if so, where should you start? The output is a written Findings Report, a scored evidence summary, a Human Capability map, and verdicts from a nine-seat adversarial advisory board, plus a 90-minute Findings Session with Chris.

What you walk away with

Findings Report

A written document, typically 60 to 80 pages. Every one of the 18 dimensions scored 1 to 5 with supporting evidence. Your Balance Factor classification. Red Flags. 90-day Quick Wins roadmap. Prioritised next-move recommendations. Yours to keep.

Scored Evidence Summary

Your 18 scores written up with the evidence behind each, plus commentary on common UK SME patterns at each maturity level. Refresh and benchmark against yourself six months from now.

Human Capability Map

Sceptic identification. AI champion mapping. Change-readiness signal. The named individuals across your business who will defend or block adoption, and what to do about each.

Advisory Board Verdicts

Written verdicts from all nine permanent advisor seats plus the rotating industry guest. Disagreements documented as Resolved, Conditional, or Unresolved. Unresolved tensions are the most valuable part of the report.

90-minute Findings Session with Chris

Pressure-test the numbers. Translation session: what it means for your business specifically. Answer every question your leadership team has. This is where the report stops being a document and starts being a decision.

The 18 dimensions, grouped

Every dimension scored 1 to 5 with evidence, across five groups.

Strategic Foundation

  • Vision
  • Strategy Alignment
  • Transformation Ambition

Leadership and Culture

  • Sponsorship
  • Communication
  • Attitude
  • Change Readiness

Governance and Ethics

  • Human Oversight
  • Governance Framework
  • Responsible AI

Capability and Enablement

  • Champions
  • Training
  • Data
  • Technology

Implementation and Scaling

  • Process
  • Feasibility
  • Measurement
  • Network Effects

Plus

A Balance Factor classification (Tech-Heavy, Culture-Ready, Strategy-Light, Governance-Shallow, or Blocked) identifying the imbalance pattern your organisation is carrying. The Balance Factor shapes what to do first.

The Human Capability Map

Most AI projects do not fail because the technology is wrong. They fail because the people around it are not ready, or are not aligned, or are quietly opposed. Generic readiness scores miss this entirely.

The Human Capability Map names individuals across your business: who the sceptics are, who the AI champions are, where change fatigue is highest, where buy-in is missing. Built from leadership interviews, frontline sampling, and direct observation.

You walk away with a sceptic-by-name briefing, a champion identification map, and a change-readiness signal for each functional team. This is what makes the difference between a Findings Report that sits on a shelf and one that gets actioned in week 2.

Differentiator

The nine-seat adversarial advisory board

A structured review process, not a reassurance exercise. Each seat operates from a named expert intellectual model with a specific analytical methodology. The board's job is to find what is wrong with your AI thinking before you commit capital. Not to validate.

1. Reduces sycophancy

A flat executive review tells you what you want to hear. Nine adversarial seats reading from named-expert intellectual models do not.

2. Reduces confirmation bias

Each advisor challenges the others' findings against an evidence standard. Disagreements documented as Resolved, Conditional, or Unresolved. Unresolved tensions are the most valuable part of the report.

3. Opens possibilities a small team would not see

Nine intellectual models running over the same evidence base produces options that any single perspective would miss.

Seat Intellectual model Analyses
Chief AI Officer Allie K. Miller (3P, CRAFT, Enterprise AI Mastery) C-H-A-N-G-E health, AI Manifesto readiness, governance risk, kill criteria.
Personnel and Change Nufar Gaspar + Conor Grennan (7 Actions for AI Adoption, AI Skills Pyramid, Search Engine Mindset, ADKAR) Named individuals, ADKAR barriers, champion identification, change fatigue, the human cost of inefficiency.
AI Literacy Expert Ethan Mollick (Jagged Frontier, Centaur/Cyborg, Co-Intelligence) Workforce literacy, Jagged Frontier mapping for your context, learning pathway design, skills decay risk.
Governance and Regulation Dr. Rumman Chowdhury (CIRCLE lifecycle, governance theatre diagnostic) EU AI Act exposure, shadow AI risk map, real vs performative HITL, proportionate governance. Holds veto power on high-risk deployments.
Solution Feasibility Andrew Ng (AI Transformation Playbook, data-centric AI, 70-20-10 build/buy/configure) Per-opportunity feasibility, data readiness, integration complexity, TCO at production scale, rollback plans.
Operations Director Goldratt + Rother (Theory of Constraints, Toyota Kata, Value Stream Mapping) The single bottleneck limiting throughput, exploit assessment, hidden capacity, whether AI investment targets the constraint or a non-constraint.
Growth / Commercial Hormozi + Campbell (Value Equation, unit economics, Van Westendorp) Revenue concentration risk, unit economics health, pricing/margin gaps, financial viability of the proposed engagement.
AI Business Expert Cassie Kozyrkov (Decision Intelligence, Type Three Error, workslop detection) What decision does each AI recommendation change, who owns it, is there a simpler adequate method, are we solving the right problem.
Rotating Industry Guest IDEA Protocol, sector-specific (Manufacturing, Wealth, Professional Services, Defence, etc.) Five universal questions: top three industry AI failures, what good looks like, sector-specific constraints the board would underestimate, where AI created genuine competitive advantage, realistic timeline for sector ROI.

Every seat produces a written verdict graded against an evidence standard (Observed / Corroborated / Inferred / Assumed). Disagreements documented with three resolution outcomes: Resolved, Conditional, or Unresolved. Unresolved tensions are the most valuable part of the report.

How a SPARK engagement runs

Phase 1

Scoping (Week 0)

60-minute scoping call. You describe your business, current AI usage, reason for commissioning SPARK. We confirm engagement scope, stakeholder list, interview schedule. You receive a written Engagement Letter and Evidence Request List.

Phase 2

Evidence (Weeks 1 to 4)

Leadership interviews (MD, COO, CFO, CIO/CTO and up to four more leaders). Frontline sampling (4 to 8 staff) for cultural triangulation. Document review against the Evidence Request List. Chris personally scores every dimension and builds the Human Capability map.

Phase 3

Advisory Board (Weeks 4 to 5)

Nine-seat adversarial review against the evidence base. Each seat produces a written verdict. Disagreements documented. Rotating industry guest activated based on your sector.

Phase 4

Findings (Weeks 5 to 6)

Findings Report delivered (electronic, branded, confidential). Scored Evidence Summary activated. 90-minute Findings Session with Chris plus whoever you invite. 30-day follow-up window for questions.

Investment

From £5,000

4 to 6 weeks, UK-based delivery, 100% of findings kept by you regardless of next step.

£5,000 is the floor for typical SME engagements. Larger or multi-site organisations scope higher. Delivered by Chris Duffy directly. The person who designs the diagnostic is the person who delivers it.

What happens after SPARK

Most SPARK engagements feed into one of four delivery paths. You are under no obligation to continue. The Report is yours either way.

Common questions

What is an AI discovery audit? +

An AI discovery audit is a structured diagnostic of an organisation's readiness to deploy AI productively. It assesses the operating model around the technology (governance, culture, leadership alignment, skills, data, processes) rather than the technology itself, and produces a written Findings Report that tells you where you stand, where the gaps are, and what to do first. SPARK is Ignite AI's bundled AI discovery audit for UK SMEs.

What is an AI readiness assessment? +

An AI readiness assessment scores an organisation's preparedness across structured dimensions, identifying which gaps will block AI from delivering value. SPARK assesses 18 dimensions across 5 groups: Strategic Foundation, Leadership and Culture, Governance and Ethics, Capability and Enablement, and Implementation and Scaling. Each dimension is scored 1 to 5 with evidence.

How is SPARK different from a McKinsey or Big 4 strategy review? +

SPARK is delivered by Chris Duffy directly: senior practitioner, not a team of analysts. AI-specific, not general strategy. From £5,000, not six figures. 4 to 6 weeks, not 6+ months. The output is a structured Findings Report and a nine-seat adversarial advisory board pressure-test, not a deck. You keep all findings regardless of whether you engage further.

What does the adversarial advisory board do? +

The board is a nine-seat structured review process. Each seat operates from a named expert intellectual model (Allie K. Miller, Nufar Gaspar, Conor Grennan, Ethan Mollick, Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, Andrew Ng, Goldratt and Rother, Hormozi and Campbell, Cassie Kozyrkov), with a rotating industry guest. The board's job is to find what is wrong with your AI thinking before you commit capital. Disagreements are documented as Resolved, Conditional, or Unresolved. Unresolved tensions are the most valuable part of the report.

Who delivers SPARK? +

Chris Duffy delivers every SPARK engagement personally. Founder of Ignite AI Solutions, 23 years UK Defence (Royal Signals, Special Forces), Certified Chief AI Officer (AIMAA), contributor to 3 Forbes articles, nominated for 3 awards at the 2026 National AI Awards. No junior consultants, no handoffs.

Why does the advisory board reduce sycophancy? +

A flat executive review tells you what you want to hear. Nine adversarial seats operating from named expert intellectual models, each with a specific analytical methodology and evidence standard, do not. The board challenges its own findings against an evidence standard graded Observed, Corroborated, Inferred, or Assumed. Findings get pressure-tested before they reach you.

Find out where your zeros are.

From £5,000. 4 to 6 weeks. Delivered by Chris Duffy directly. Findings yours to keep regardless of next step.