The CEO of a manufacturer should start an AI readiness assessment from a list of the AI tools staff already use at work, limit what company information goes into them, pick one task on the list to build a company-paid AI tool for, and check that task's data, customer terms and reviewer before approving the build.
Microsoft, which sells workplace software including the Copilot AI assistant, published the 2024 Work Trend Index with LinkedIn on May 8, 2024, from 31,000 full-time employed or self-employed knowledge workers, meaning those who typically work at a desk, in 31 markets, surveyed February 15 to March 28, 2024 by Edelman Data & Intelligence. It found 75% of knowledge workers use AI at work today and 78% of AI users are bringing their own AI tools to work. Microsoft's report gives no figure for manufacturers.
In week one the COO sends everyone who works at a desk a form, open two weeks, asking which AI tools they use for work, for which task, how often, what company information goes in, and who pays for the tool. It asks for a department, with small departments grouped together, and no name, since in Microsoft's survey 52% of people who use AI at work are reluctant to admit to using it for their most important tasks. The same week the COO issues an interim rule naming the information, such as customer drawings, prices and employee records, that stays out of any AI tool without a company contract whose data terms the IT manager has approved.
In week three the COO and the IT manager rank the tasks on the list, those that touch customer or supplier information first, then by how many people named them, and pick the top task and its tool, such as the business tier of the tool staff named for that task. If the top task is quality engineers drafting corrective action responses, the reports a customer asks for after a defective shipment, from nonconformance records, that task becomes the build.
Weeks four to six check readiness for that task alone. The quality manager, who owns the nonconformance records, confirms which system holds them, and the IT manager confirms from the vendor's business terms where the tool keeps company data and whether the vendor may train on it. With whoever holds customer contracts, the quality manager reads the nondisclosure, supply and quality agreements and purchase order terms of every customer named in the last 12 months of records for terms on sharing its data, and names the engineer who reviews every draft before it reaches a customer.
In week seven the CEO stops the build if the vendor may train on company data or no reviewer is named, and otherwise approves it, leaving out the records of any customer whose terms bar sharing them or went unread. The interim rule covers every task without an approved build. The assessment costs staff time; the company pays for the build from the operations budget, at the vendor's per-user price for the engineers who do the task, plus the IT manager's hours to connect it. An operating partner can ask each portfolio company's CEO for the list, the date the interim rule was issued, the task chosen and the date of the build decision.
Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index, published May 5, 2026 from 20,000 knowledge workers who use AI at work in 10 markets, surveyed February through April 2026, reports no own-tools figure. In it, only one in four AI users surveyed (26%) say their leadership is clearly and consistently aligned on AI.
