Agent Readiness Audit
The Agent Readiness Audit is a $1,500, one-week diagnostic. We score each role on three things — a measurable KPI, a written SOP, mostly-digital work — and hand you a build-vs-skip verdict for every one, with the ROI arithmetic behind it. Sign any build with us within 30 days and the $1,500 is credited in full.
The honest part up front: about half the roles we audit fail the test today. We name which, and why. That verdict is cheaper at $1,500 than after a build.
Best for: founders and ops leads at 10–200-person companies deciding where the first agent budget goes. Our core is 20–50 people.
30 minutes, free, no pitch. We'll tell you on the call if the audit isn't worth it for you.
Four deliverables, all in writing, all yours to keep whether or not a build follows.
Every role you nominate, scored on the three things that predict whether an agent can do the work: a measurable KPI, a written SOP, and mostly-digital tasks. Role by role, duty by duty. This is the same test we run before accepting any build.
Not a maturity score. A verdict: build this now, build part of it, or skip it and here's why. About half the roles we look at fail the test today, and naming those is most of what you're paying for.
The passing roles ranked by payback: what each agent replaces, what it should cost to build and to run, and what order to build in. Priced against our own floor — builds start at $8,000, fixed — so the arithmetic is checkable, not hand-wavy.
For every role that fails, the specific reason: usually a missing SOP, or knowledge scattered across Slack threads and two senior people's heads. You get the repair list in priority order, whether or not you ever hire us to work through it.
If a role has clearly determined KPIs and clearly determined SOPs, and the work is mostly digital, an agent can very likely do that work much better — or at least take a real part of it off someone's desk. That single test predicts outcomes better than headcount or budget does. The audit is that test, applied duty by duty, with the scoring shown.
A missing yes is not a no. It tells you which document to write first. Most failed roles fail on the SOP: the steps live in Slack threads, in two senior people's heads, and in documents that contradict each other. In our own client work, not more than 25% of companies arrive with their knowledge in a usable state.
The rubric comes from shipping 100+ agents, including the failures. One 20–50-person company skipped this step, gave every employee an always-on agent, hit roughly $3–5k/month in token spend, and shut the whole program down inside two months. The audit exists so you find that out on paper instead.
Five business days, two calls, one written report. Every audit is scored and delivered by the founder, not a junior.
60–90 minutes with whoever knows how the work actually gets done. We pick the roles to score, walk the highest-friction workflows end to end, and collect read-only access (or screenshots) for the tools involved.
Each role's duties get scored against the KPI/SOP test, the tooling gets checked for API access, and the passing candidates get costed against real build and running numbers from our deployments.
An hour walking the map: what to build first, what to skip, what each build should cost, and what to fix before the failed roles are worth revisiting. The report is yours to keep, and to execute with anyone.
Because a no at $1,500 is the cheapest outcome in this market. A skip verdict caught in the audit costs one week and the fee. The same verdict discovered after a build costs the build, the running bill, and a team that now distrusts the next AI project.
About half the tasks owners ask us about fail the test today. You pay us to hear that too. No free audit will tell you this, because the free audit's job is to end in a proposal.
And a skip verdict comes with the reason attached. Usually it's a missing SOP or scattered knowledge, which is fixable — that's Company Second Brain work. Sometimes the work genuinely needs human judgment, and the report says so: don't let anyone sell you an agent for it.
The audit is $1,500, fixed. One week, no hourly meter, no upsell mid-engagement. Sign any build with us within 30 days and the full $1,500 comes off that invoice. Builds start at $8,000, fixed price — scoped from the audit's own findings, so the proposal quotes work the report already justified.
Where builds usually go from here: roles that failed on scattered knowledge get a Company Second Brain install, typically 3–4 weeks. Roles that passed get built as agents — see AI agent development — and companies running several of them get the Agentic OS operating layer, pilot to production in 6–8 weeks.
Every build holds to four commitments, in writing: a named workflow, a fixed price, a measurable result, and you own what gets built.
Book it if agent budget is approved but nobody can say which role it should go to, if a previous automation quietly died, or if the operation runs on what a few senior people carry in their heads.
By Ashutosh Upadhyay, founder of Cognio Labs. The audit rubric is the same test we apply before accepting any build, learned across 100+ shipped agents and the deployments that failed. We run agent systems in production for a funded startup today — including catching a token bill that was on its way to $3–5k a month before it hit. Published 2026-08-29.
A fixed-scope, one-week diagnostic priced at $1,500. We score each role you nominate on three things — a measurable KPI, a written SOP, and mostly-digital work — then deliver a KPI/SOP opportunity map, a build-vs-skip verdict per role, an ROI roadmap for the roles that pass, and a fix-first list for the ones that fail. The fee is credited in full against any build signed within 30 days.
Because a free audit is a sales call wearing a costume: its conclusion is always 'hire us.' Charging for the diagnostic is what lets the verdict be honest — about half the roles we score fail the test, and we put that in writing. A free audit that told you half your ideas won't work would never survive the agency's own pipeline review.
Yes. Sign any build with us within 30 days of the audit — a Company Second Brain, an Agentic OS engagement, or a single agent build — and the full $1,500 comes off that invoice. After 30 days, you've bought a report you own outright and can execute with anyone, including without us.
Then the audit just saved you a build budget. You get the fix-first list: which SOPs to write, which knowledge to capture out of Slack threads and senior people's heads, and in what order. Fixing that is usually Company Second Brain work, but the list is written so your own team can work through it. You've spent $1,500 finding this out instead of $8,000 or more finding it out mid-build.
Two calls and some access. A 60–90-minute working session at the start with someone who knows how the work really gets done (an operator, not an engineer), read-only invites to the relevant tools, and an hour at the end to walk the verdicts. The scoring in between is our job.
If roles passed and you want them built, builds start at $8,000, fixed price, with the $1,500 credited. A Company Second Brain install typically runs 3–4 weeks; an Agentic OS engagement takes agents from pilot to production in 6–8 weeks. If nothing passed, you get the repair list and no pitch — come back when the SOPs exist.
$1,500, credited in full to any build signed within 30 days. Start with the free discovery call; if the audit isn't worth it for you, we'll say so there.