
A few weeks ago I kept having the same conversation with founders. Someone would ask where they stood on AI, I'd ask a few questions back, and it would become clear pretty quickly that they didn't really know.
Not because they weren't thinking about it, but because there was no reference point. No benchmark. Just a vague sense of being somewhere on a curve without knowing where the curve went. So we built one.
The AI Transformation Index is a free tool we put together for B2B software founders. Twelve questions, six dimensions, results in a few minutes. It places you on a four-stage curve Pre-shift, Early mover, Transformer, or Frontier builder, and gives you a score across each dimension so you can see where the gaps actually are, not just an overall number.

The six dimensions are product integration, team operations, data strategy, engineering velocity, org design, and competitive position. The reason those six is that in every conversation I've had with founders going through this, the ones who are genuinely ahead aren't just AI-native in one area. It tends to compound across all of them. A company that's restructured its org around AI leverage but hasn't thought about data strategy is leaving something on the table. A company with a strong data moat but no AI in the product yet is a different kind of problem. The index is designed to surface that gap clearly.
On the build side, this is the kind of thing that would have taken weeks two years ago.
Scoping, briefing an agency or a developer, rounds of feedback, a launch date that kept moving.
We built the first working version in a single session with Claude Code. The design uses the Shift AI brand, Bebas Neue, acid yellow on black, and the whole thing runs in the browser with no backend. Questions, scoring logic, dimension breakdowns, results page, email gate for the benchmark report. One HTML file.
That's not a boast about AI. It's an observation about what's changed for founders who are willing to learn by doing. Roy Mann talked about going back to coding to understand AI from the inside. Semir Jahic built his entire company's content infrastructure in an afternoon. The pattern is the same. You don't need to be a developer. You need to be willing to spend a Sunday morning on it.
The index is live now. If you want to know where your company actually sits, take it. It takes less time than the conversation you'd have trying to answer the same questions out loud.
Alex
Founder, Shift AI
P.S. If you're not already subscribed to The AI Revolution Show, that's where a lot of this thinking gets tested in real conversations with founders who are living it. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
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