AI Audit
An independent read on AI for your business.
You don’t need help running your business. You know it better than anyone. What’s hard to get is a straight answer about AI from someone who isn’t selling software: what’s real, what’s noise, what’s worth your attention, and what it would take to do it properly. The Audit is that answer, in writing, with a person’s name on it.
Inspection, verification, and recommendations a person stands behind
We inspect
We look at how the business actually runs, not how the org chart says it does. Where leads come in and who sees them. Where client records live. Which tools you pay for and which anyone uses. What has already gone out the door with AI in it. Firsthand, in your systems, with your permission.
We verify
An opinion about AI is cheap. We check ours against your operation. Where a number exists, we measure it. Where it doesn’t, we say so, and the first thing we build is the way to measure it.
A person signs off
Every recommendation is written, priced in your own numbers, and reviewed by a named person before it reaches you. Nothing in the Audit is a machine’s guess handed over unread.
What the Audit covers
Seven areas, each graded straight and read against your market. The percentage beside each one is how much it counts toward the overall read. Two or three will matter most for your business; the Audit says which, and why.
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20% Lead Management
Can anyone see every lead: source, owner, status, next step? We find out where leads arrive, where they land, and where they go quiet.
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20% Follow-Up Discipline
What happens after first contact. Whether a rhythm exists, whether anything enforces it, and who owns the client who isn’t ready for twelve months.
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15% Data Quality
Where your client history actually lives, whose name it’s in, and whether the firm could retrieve it tomorrow.
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15% Reporting and Visibility
Which numbers you can produce on demand and which you answer as a range because nothing in the business produces the figure.
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10% Process Documentation
What’s written down, what lives in the owner’s head, and which of those gaps matter for leads, follow-up, and client-facing material.
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10% Automation Readiness
Whether the triggers and handoffs in your operation are defined well enough to automate anything yet, and which tools you already pay for could do the work.
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10% AI Readiness
Where AI is already in the building, whether anything reviews what it produces before a client sees it, and who would be the named reviewer.
The scored areas are not the whole report. An Audit follows what it finds, and the written plan regularly covers ground outside these seven.
What the engines say about you today
Before we start, we ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google and Gemini the questions your next customer asks — “who’s a good [your trade] near [your town]?” — and record what they say, with the date. It goes in the report as a finding, not a grade: what they say today, and what changes it. Most of what changes it is already in your hands.
What you walk away with
A written report, walked through with you in person or on a call, and delivered electronically the same day. Every recommendation in it is priced in your own unit — a closing, a door, a job — so you can weigh it against everything else on your plate. One thing you can order inside two weeks without buying anything.
The report contains
- The one number that matters most, and how we got to it.
- The seven areas, weighted and graded, with the evidence behind each grade.
- What the AI engines say about your firm today, dated.
- A written scope for anything we’d propose building, priced, so there’s nothing to guess at.
- The plan itself, which is yours to keep and act on with us or without us.
The recommendation does not have to be a build.
An Audit can end in any of these, and the report says which and why:
- Keep what you have. It is working; we say so.
- Configure what you already pay for. The tool you own can do it once it is set up to.
- Automate without AI. A plain workflow does the job.
- Use AI here, with a named reviewer, and here is the written scope.
- Not enough evidence yet. Here is what would need measuring first.
How it works
- 1
Discovery Conversation
Thirty minutes. We learn your business; you learn how we’d work with you. No pitch deck.
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The Audit
A short questionnaire, a walkthrough of your systems with your permission, and two to four weeks of inspection. Fixed scope, fixed fee, agreed in writing before we start.
Before we start, we agree who takes part and how much time to set aside for the questionnaire, the walkthrough and the readout. We also agree which systems we need to see, what information we copy, and how long we keep it. We use commercial AI and cloud providers — including Anthropic's Claude — in our own analysis and drafting, configured to disable model training on your information wherever that setting is available; the written scope names the providers involved in your engagement and what goes to them. Those arrangements are written into the scope before you give us access to any system.
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The Readout
The report, walked through page by page. What you do next is your call.
Questions owners ask before an Audit
- What is an AI Audit?
- An independent read on where AI fits your business and where it doesn't. We inspect how you actually run, verify what AI can and can't do for it, and give you a written plan with a person's name on it. We have no software to sell, so the plan is the product.
- What does it cover?
- Seven areas: lead management, follow-up discipline, data quality, reporting and visibility, process documentation, automation readiness, and AI readiness. Each is weighted and graded Strong, Solid, Gap or Priority, and two or three will matter most for your business. We also record what the AI engines say about your firm today. The written plan is not limited to the seven — it follows what the inspection finds.
- How long does it take?
- Two to four weeks, fixed scope and fixed fee, agreed in writing before we start. Your time is a short questionnaire, a walkthrough of your systems, and the readout.
- What do I get at the end?
- A written report, walked through with you and delivered the same day. Every recommendation is priced in your own unit — a closing, a door, a job — and one of them is something you can order inside two weeks without buying anything.
- Do I have to buy anything afterward?
- No. The plan is yours to act on with us or without us. If something in it is worth building, we'll scope it separately and in writing, in the tools you already pay for, and it stays yours.
- Who is it for?
- Owner-led service businesses on the coast: real estate brokerages, property management firms, and HVAC, plumbing and electrical trades. If you'd rather get AI right than get it first, it's for you.
How we stand behind the work
In writing
Every engagement runs under a written scope with a risk schedule that says, plainly, what we are responsible for and what stays with you. No surprises on either side.
A person signs off
Every automation we recommend has a human review step in front of anything that reaches your customers — a message, a listing, a recommendation. The written scope says so, and it says who operates it.
Insured
Salt Marsh Growth AI, LLC carries professional liability (errors and omissions), cyber liability, and general liability coverage. We share certificates of insurance with clients and prospective clients on request.
Yours to keep
The automations we build run in your own accounts, under your name. If we part ways, they keep working and you keep them. Salt Marsh Lookout runs on our side and reads your numbers by connection; the scope says exactly what it reads.
Start with a Discovery Conversation
30 minutes. We learn your business; you learn how we’d work with you. No pitch deck. No obligation.