We closed out a recent week having just completed our first full AI Audit — working alongside the marketing team at Plan B Net Zero. It's the kind of engagement that reminds you what a good audit actually requires, and why it starts long before anyone talks about tools.
What makes an AI Audit actually work
1. Bring the whole room together
This wasn't a siloed exercise. We ran it across PR & branding, graphic design, social media, paid media, marketing management, and website management — all in the same conversation. Automation opportunities usually live in the handoffs between these functions, not inside any single one of them, so mapping them separately misses most of the picture.
2. Map reality, not aspiration
A good audit starts by documenting exactly how work gets done today — the tools, the handoffs, the repetitive tasks, the bottlenecks. Not how the team wishes it worked. You can't automate what you haven't honestly mapped.
3. Identify where AI creates genuine leverage
Not every task should be automated. The audit's job is to highlight the high-volume, low-complexity work where AI delivers speed and consistency, while protecting the high-judgment, creative work that people do best.
4. Mindset is the real audit
This is the one most people miss. What made the Plan B Net Zero team stand out wasn't their tech stack — it was their attitude. They came in open, curious, and already convinced that automation is a strategic advantage, not a threat. That mindset is the foundation every successful AI adoption is built on. Without it, even the best tools fail.
5. The output is a roadmap, not a report
An audit that ends in a document nobody acts on wasn't worth running. The output needs to be a prioritized, actionable plan: what to automate first, what to pilot, what to monitor, and how to measure ROI.
Ready to lead with it, not just adopt it
Working with a marketing team this engaged made the whole process better — their honesty about what wasn't working, and their curiosity about what could, is exactly the foundation an audit needs to turn into a real plan. Teams like that aren't just ready for AI. They're ready to lead with it.
If you're curious what an AI Audit could uncover for your team, that's exactly where we'd start.