Trust layer
Methodology
The score is arithmetic. No model decides your band, nothing is inferred about you, and the same answers always produce the same number. This page is the whole method — if you disagree with a cut-off, you can compute your own.
How the number is built
12questions, four options each
0–3points per question
36maximum score
Each question is answered by picking one of four statements: not in place (0), one person or one try (1), used but not documented (2), part of the process (3). The four statements exist so the score measures whether something is in the process, not whether it exists in someone's head. Missing answers count as zero, and the report shows you every answer with the score it got.
What each dimension covers
| Dimension | Questions | Why it is weighted this way |
|---|---|---|
| Data & privacy What information may enter an AI tool, where it lands, and whether a DPA exists. | Q1 · Q2 · Q3 | |
| Tool ledger & control Whether you know every AI tool in use and can shut one down on the day it matters. | Q4 · Q5 | |
| Work processes Whether AI sits inside estimating, site records and variation tracking — or beside them. | Q6 · Q7 · Q8 | |
| People & policy Whether the whole crew knows the rules and signed the one-pager. | Q9 · Q10 | |
| Measurement & review Whether anyone can prove what AI costs and what it returns. | Q11 · Q12 |
Bands
| Score | Band | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0–9 | Shadow AI | It is happening whether or not you know about it. AI is being used in your business, nobody owns it, and nothing is written down. The risk sits with you, not with the person who pressed copy. |
| Ad hoc | Someone is experimenting. Nobody is accountable. A few good habits, no system. Expect the same trick to work again next quarter — and expect the opposite outcome the first time someone pastes the wrong file. | |
| Defined | You are running AI, but you cannot prove it. Most of the pieces exist in someone’s head or a half-used template. The next step is not more tools — it is one owner and one record. | |
| 36–36 | Institutionalised | AI is a process with a name attached to it. Governed, recorded and reviewed. Your job now is measurement against the numbers, not more policy. |
Bands are our interpretation, not an official classification. They exist so you can say “we were ad hoc” and mean something checkable.
The hour estimate
The report converts your point deficit into an indicative monthly figure of 1.5 hours per missing point, then multiplies that by NZD 74.00, the building small-firm output rate for 2026 Q1. Both halves are rough: the hours factor is a planning figure, and the hourly rate moves with the quarter. It is labelled an estimate on every report it appears on, and it is never presented as a saving you should expect.
Privacy of the score itself
The score runs in your browser. Nothing is transmitted unless you type an email and press the store button, at which point your answers and that email are written to a Cloudflare KV store under the site's privacy policy, for the purpose of sending you the report. We do not run your answers through a language model, we do not use them for training, and we do not sell them.
Sources
| Source | Used for |
|---|---|
| embedAI — State of AI in New Zealand Business (2026-04) | The 87% → 12% adoption gap. |
| Microsoft / EMA workforce survey (2026) | 81% staff bring their own tools; 13% of SMEs have a policy. |
| Deloitte Access Economics for 2degrees (FY25) | NZD 400,000 average earnings difference for AI-adopting SMEs. |
| Xero small business productivity benchmarks (2026 Q1) | NZD 74.00 per hour for building small firms. |
| Kennards Hire — Construction Confidence Check 2026 | 59% worried about closing; 35% crediting AI and digital. |
| NSP — Shadow AI in Construction Firms in New Zealand | The documented behaviour this whole site exists to fix. |
| AI Forum New Zealand — AEC working group (2026-05) | Industry position on formalising AI policy. |
| MBIE / NZ Government — AI strategy (2025-07-08) and responsible AI guidance | Official positioning used in the PP12 path. |
| business.govt.nz — Data for business | Business counts by industry; the 81,000 construction figure. |
| Vendor pricing pages (per tool) | Indicative NZD costs and data regions in the ledger. |
Change control
Every figure on this site lives in the repository with a date. Prices in the ledger are marked with the month they were last verified. When a source is superseded, the new number arrives with both the old one and the date change noted. Anything a model drafts goes into a pull request and waits for a human.