AI Readiness & Adoption Services
AI adoption starts with readiness. Vertilocity helps you assess risks, close gaps, and adopt tools like Microsoft Copilot safely and strategically.
Start with an AI Readiness Assessment
Why work with Vertilocity on AI Readiness?
- We look at your specific environment, not a generic checklist
- One completed assessment already delivered for a long-term care client
- Deep Microsoft 365 expertise across SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and Copilot
- Governance approach grounded in the NIST AI Risk Management Framework
- We help you define the vision if you don’t have one yet
Before any AI tool can deliver value, your environment needs to be ready for it. That means your data governance, permissions structure, and access controls have to be in order. If they aren’t, AI doesn’t just fail to help, it can actively expose information you didn’t intend to surface. When you introduce an AI agent into an environment where SharePoint folders aren’t locked down or where permissions haven’t been audited, that agent can find and surface files your team never intended to make visible. Salary information. Financial records. PHI. Whatever is accessible gets accessible faster. The Readiness Assessment is a deep-dive evaluation of your Microsoft 365 environment that answers one foundational question: is your house in order?
Where is your data living? How is it structured? Is it classified, and does that classification match how it’s actually being stored and accessed? We identify libraries, folders, and data your team may not know exists, flag what needs to be cleaned up, archived, or restructured, and ensure sensitive information is where it should be and only where it should be.
Who has access to what, and how many administrators exist within the environment? We evaluate your permissions structure across SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and connected systems, identify over-sharing and permission drift, and apply least-privilege principles to minimize what any AI agent could access or expose.
Your team is likely already using AI tools, some approved and some not. We help you identify where unmanaged AI usage exists across your organization so you can address the risk proactively, before a policy violation or data exposure forces your hand.
For organizations considering broader AI use cases, such as agents that connect systems, automate workflows, or bridge your ERP with other platforms, we evaluate your current technology stack for integration readiness and identify where data needs to flow more cleanly.
We start by doing a deep dive into your Microsoft 365 environment: your data structure, permissions, access controls, and any AI tools already in use across your organization. You get a documented picture of where things stand and a clear list of what needs to be addressed before any AI tool is introduced.
Assessment findings become a prioritized action plan. We identify what needs to be cleaned up, restructured, or governed, and we map out your recommended next steps based on your specific goals. Whether that’s deploying Microsoft Copilot, building a custom workflow automation, or simply getting the data foundation right, you leave with a roadmap, not just a report.
Once the foundation is ready, we help you move forward at the pace that makes sense for your organization. That might mean deploying Copilot with adoption training, building a custom AI agent for a specific workflow, or connecting systems that currently require manual handoffs. We stay involved as your environment evolves.
Once we know where you stand, we help you move forward at the pace that makes sense for your organization. Not every client is ready for the same next step, and that’s exactly the point.
Copilot is embedded across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, and many organizations already have it licensed but not yet activated or adopted. We assess your Microsoft 365 environment specifically for Copilot readiness, confirm your permissions and data exposure are addressed, and support deployment, adoption training, and ongoing enablement so your team actually uses it.
Not every AI opportunity starts with Copilot. Sometimes the highest-value starting point is a specific operational problem: a manual process consuming staff time, a data handoff between systems that doesn’t happen cleanly, or a reporting workflow that could be automated. We take a discovery-first approach, understand the inefficiency, design the solution, and make sure the AI agent we deploy has access only to what it needs.
Many organizations carry more applications than they realize: disconnected systems that don’t integrate, data sitting in multiple places, and manual processes bridging the gaps. AI can help consolidate and automate, but only when there’s a clear map of what you have. We help you identify where your stack can be leaned out and where AI can do the work a human currently does by hand.
For organizations considering broader AI use cases, such as agents that connect systems, automate workflows, or bridge your ERP with other platforms, we That’s more common than you’d think. Most organizations know they need to be doing something with AI, they’re just not sure what. That’s exactly what the Readiness Assessment is for. We help you define the vision alongside the foundation, so you’re not committing to a direction before you understand your options. your current technology stack for integration readiness and identify where data needs to flow more cleanly.
AI without governance is not a strategy. It’s a risk.
Adopting AI tools without a governance framework isn’t just technically risky. It’s a business risk, a compliance risk, and increasingly a regulatory risk. Employees upload confidential documents into unapproved tools. Agents are granted broader access than they need. Outputs get used in client communications or financial reports without human review. These aren’t hypothetical scenarios. They’re already happening across organizations that moved fast without a plan. Vertilocity’s approach to AI governance is grounded in the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, a recognized, regulator-accepted structure that covers the full lifecycle of AI adoption.
For regulated industries including healthcare, financial services, and nonprofits handling sensitive data, we align this framework to your specific compliance obligations, including HIPAA, FINRA, and emerging state and federal AI requirements.
Get Complete Security for Your SharePoint Environment
Collaboration only works when it’s secure. That’s why Vertilocity created SecurePoint IQ – the smarter way to monitor, protect, and optimize your SharePoint environment. Get real-time insight into who has access, how data is shared, and where risks exist, without slowing anyone down.
- File Intelligence Tools: Find duplicates, version sprawl, and unused files to control storage.
- Security Dashboard: Real-time visibility across sites, users, and sharing activity.
- Permission Reporting and Alerts: Pinpoint overexposed data and risky external shares.
- Role-Based Controls: Ensure the right access for every person, no more and no less.
- Compliance-Ready Reports: Export evidence for HIPAA, FINRA, and SEC reviews.
For organizations that have moved through the readiness phase and are ready to build something specific, our Modern Workplace team designs and develops custom AI solutions tailored to your business processes. Every engagement starts with the business problem, not the technology.
End-to-end BI development connecting directly to your source systems, building semantic data models, and delivering Power BI dashboards that give leadership a real-time view of operations.
We build and orchestrate AI agents designed to work alongside your team, automating specific workflows, connecting disparate systems, and handling the manual processes that are consuming staff time.
Custom integration layers that connect your ERP, CRM, EMR, and third-party platforms so data flows cleanly without spreadsheet bridges or manual handoffs.
Full-stack applications built within your Microsoft environment, including Dynamics CRM, that extend what your existing platforms can do.
You don’t need to have it figured out before you call us
Our AI Readiness & Adoption services are built for organizations that:
- Know AI is important but aren’t sure where to start
- Are considering Microsoft Copilot but haven’t confirmed their environment is ready
- Have had the conversation with their team and gotten a dozen different opinions
- Want to understand what peers and similar organizations are doing
- Have already started using AI informally and want to get governance in place before it becomes a problem
- Have a specific operational challenge they think AI could solve, but aren’t sure how to approach it
If any of those sound familiar, the AI Readiness Assessment is the right first conversation.
Your End-to-End Managed Service Provider
IT Professionals with Deep Industry Expertise
Start with a conversation, not a commitment
The AI Readiness Assessment gives you clarity on where your environment stands, what needs to be addressed, and what a realistic path forward looks like for your organization. No pressure to commit to a direction before you have the information to make a good decision.
Frequently asked questions
Think of it as getting your house in order before you bring in a powerful new tool. We do a deep-dive on your Microsoft 365 environment, looking at who has access to what, how your data is structured, where sensitive information lives, and whether your permissions are aligned with what you actually want people to see. Once we know what we’re working with, we can tell you what needs to be addressed and what your realistic options are for AI adoption.
Actually, that’s the ideal time. The assessment isn’t specific to one AI tool. It evaluates your environment so that whatever you decide to implement, the foundation is ready. And part of what comes out of it is a clearer picture of where AI would actually add value for your organization, which helps inform the decision about which tools make sense.
Copilot is a powerful tool, but it doesn’t know your permission structure. If someone in your organization has access to a SharePoint folder they shouldn’t, and they ask Copilot to find information, Copilot will find it. The assessment makes sure your environment is secured and governed before you turn on a tool that can surface information at AI speed. We also confirm whether your Microsoft 365 licensing actually includes Copilot, because many organizations assume it does when it’s actually a paid add-on.
A documented summary of your current environment, including data governance gaps, permissions issues, and shadow AI risk, along with a prioritized action plan. We also provide recommendations on what your next steps should be based on your specific situation and goals.
Yes, and it’s increasingly important. The HHS Office for Civil Rights issued new guidance clarifying that organizations are liable for all AI use, including tools that employees adopt without IT involvement. We address PHI exposure risk, evaluate access controls around protected health information, review AI vendor Business Associate Agreement requirements, and align our governance recommendations with your HIPAA compliance obligations. The Readiness Assessment for healthcare clients specifically accounts for where PHI lives in your environment and what an AI agent would be able to access.
The most common one is: “What are other organizations doing?” Most people know AI is something they need to address, they’re just not sure what that looks like for a business like theirs. The second most common is some version of: “We have a vision, but we don’t know if we’re ready.” Both are exactly where the assessment is designed to start.
No, though many of our clients do have some level of internal IT resource. We’re built to support organizations across the spectrum, from those with no internal IT to those with a full team who want an outside perspective. The assessment is collaborative but doesn’t require significant time from your team to complete.
The assessment is not limited to Copilot. It evaluates your environment broadly, including identifying any AI tools your team is already using, approved or not. That said, for most of our clients in the Microsoft ecosystem, Copilot is often the most logical starting point for AI adoption because it’s embedded in tools they already use daily. For organizations with specific operational workflows that need a custom solution, we also design and build bespoke AI agents and automations.
