Advancing how organizations measure and build readiness.
The Readiness Institute publishes the open readiness persona standard, the annual State of AI Readiness report, and anonymized industry benchmarks — so leaders can act on evidence, not anecdotes.
Our mission
Organizations are investing heavily in AI capability, yet most still cannot see where their people actually stand. The Institute exists to close that measurement gap — with rigorous, independent, openly-published research.
We deliberately study readiness, not just “AI readiness.” Technologies change; the discipline of understanding how a workforce adopts, trusts, and is enabled by new tools endures. Our standards are built to outlive any single moment.
The measurement gap
Spend is happening. Visibility isn’t. The evidence is consistent across the major workforce studies.
59–60%
of leaders report an internal AI skills gap — despite already spending on training.
DataCamp / YouGov, 2026
77%
of organizations plan to reskill or upskill for AI within five years.
Microsoft Viva
54%
of employees use AI even when it isn’t authorized — shadow AI is real.
BCG, 2025
15%
of desk workers report receiving adequate AI training.
Slack Workforce Lab
The seven-persona readiness standard
Every serious model converges on two level-set axes — attitude × skill — with the organization’s enablement as a modifier. The Institute’s standard consolidates that research into seven personas, on a diffusion-of-innovations backbone.
- Champion
All-in, fluent, and vocally evangelizing AI to peers.
Attitude: Very positiveSkill: High - Quiet Power-User
Heavy, skilled AI user who keeps it low-profile or uses unsanctioned tools.
Attitude: PositiveSkill: High · hidden - Eager Novice
Enthusiastic and willing, but low actual usage — cheering from the sidelines.
Attitude: PositiveSkill: Low - Structured Adopter
Pragmatic; adopts when given tools, permission, and training.
Attitude: Neutral → positiveSkill: Moderate - Cautious Observer
Aware and watching, but indifferent and not yet using AI.
Attitude: IndifferentSkill: Low - Skeptic
Capable but distrusts AI’s reliability and worries about deskilling.
Attitude: GuardedSkill: Moderate → high - Resistor
Actively opposed; sees AI as a threat and as unfair when others use it.
Attitude: Strongly negativeSkill: Low / avoidant
Sources: BCG “AI Adoption Puzzle” (2025); Slack Workforce Lab (2024); Microsoft Work Trend Index (2025–26); McKinsey “Superagency” (2025); Gallup (2025); Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations.
The State of AI Readiness
Our flagship annual report benchmarks workforce AI readiness across industries and company sizes — persona mix, the five readiness dimensions, and the risks that most often stall adoption. It is powered by anonymized, aggregated data contributed through Readigence assessments, with no personally identifiable information — ever.
Inaugural edition — in preparation
The first benchmark is being assembled as assessment data accumulates. Follow Readigence for release.
The Institute sets the standard. Readigence applies it.
Readigence is the product that puts this research to work — an adaptive assessment that maps every employee to a persona and turns the result into a prescriptive action plan. Every assessment, in turn, makes the benchmarks stronger.