The Integration Index from The Big AI Secret · Explained

What the numbers actually mean.

The Integration Index asks six questions about how your business uses AI. Each one is worth up to three points, so the most you can score is eighteen. This page shows you what a real business looks like at each score, and what your stage means for what you do next.

We score what AI is actually doing in your business, not how many tools you have bought. Paying for ChatGPT scores you nothing. A weekly job that now runs without anyone typing it out scores you plenty. Most businesses score low, so a low number is normal, not a telling-off.

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The six things we measure

Six questions, scored 0 to 3.

Breadth

How many people actually use AI in their work?

0Nobody, or one curious person doing it quietly.
1A handful of enthusiasts. It goes quiet when they are on holiday.
2Most of a team uses it in a normal week.
3It is normal across the business, in more than one team.

Autonomy

How much of a job does it finish on its own?

0Nothing. People do the work start to finish.
1It drafts and summarises. A person finishes every job.
2It completes whole steps, and someone checks the output.
3It runs whole jobs end to end, and people only handle exceptions.

Integration

Is it connected to the systems you run the business on?

0Not at all. Everything is typed in by hand.
1Copy and paste out of your systems and back in again.
2Some things are connected, so data moves without a person.
3It reads and writes to your main systems as a matter of course.

Measurement

Can anyone say what it saved or earned?

0No idea. It feels useful.
1Anecdotes: someone says it saves them a morning.
2Hours or costs are tracked for at least one job.
3Value is reported, reviewed and used to decide what to do next.

Governance

Are there rules people can name and follow?

0None. Everyone decides for themselves.
1An informal understanding. Nothing written down.
2Written rules on what may go in and what may come out.
3Rules that are owned, reviewed, and actually checked.

Access

Who is allowed to put AI to work without asking permission?

0Nobody, or it is quietly discouraged.
1Only technical people, or only whoever pays for a tool themselves.
2Anyone in the relevant team, using approved tools.
3Anyone in the business, with training and tools provided.

The four stages

Add the six up, and you land somewhere.

Explorer 0 to 5 of 18

A few people are trying things. Nothing is connected, nothing is measured, and if those people left, it would stop.

What to do next: Pick one job that happens every week and hand it over properly, start to finish.

Implementer 6 to 10 of 18

Real use in pockets. It saves time for individuals, but a person still starts and finishes every job, and the value is hard to point to.

What to do next: Connect one job to the system it lives in, and start counting the hours it gives back.

Integrator 11 to 14 of 18

AI is wired into the systems you run on, the rules are written down, and someone can tell you what it is worth.

What to do next: Move from checked output to trusted output on the jobs that have earned it.

Transformer 15 to 18 of 18

Whole workflows run without a person in the middle, by design rather than by accident. People handle the exceptions and the judgement calls.

What to do next: Push into the work that was never worth doing before, because now it costs almost nothing.

Common questions

Where do the comparison figures come from?: Every response in the index: businesses who answer the ten-question assessment, plus thirty-minute researcher interviews scored on the same six dimensions. Your comparison is drawn from businesses in your sector and of your size wherever there are enough of them to be meaningful.
Is a low score a bad thing?: No. Most businesses score low, and the score only tells you where to start. A 4 that knows its next move beats a 9 that does not.
What happens to my answers?: They become one anonymous row in the index. Figures are published in aggregate, quotes by role and sector, never by name or firm. The privacy notice has the detail.

Find your stage →