Data Readiness Checklist
Free UK download. Production-ready data readiness checklist in Excel (.xlsx) + 10-page guidance PDF, drafted in plain English against UK GDPR and ICO guidance.10 pages, editable sections clearly marked. Enter your email below — the full pack is sent within minutes.
A 60-item checklist to verify your data is ready to support AI. Coverage, quality, access, lineage, governance, UK GDPR lawful basis — all the things that sink AI projects, diagnosed before you spend a penny on modelling.
What's Included
Inside this template
- 60 readiness checks across 8 dimensions
- Data coverage and completeness
- Quality, duplication and consistency
- Access, permissions and identity
- Lineage and provenance
- UK GDPR lawful basis and retention
- Labelling and ground-truth availability
- Scoring dashboard and gap list
About This Template
Why it matters for organisations
Ninety percent of AI project risk sits in the data, not the model. Teams that skip a readiness assessment invariably discover — halfway through a build — that the underlying data is incomplete, duplicated, poorly labelled or lacks a lawful basis for the intended use. This checklist makes those issues visible before a project starts.
The 60-item checklist covers eight dimensions: coverage, quality, access, lineage, governance, UK GDPR lawful basis, labelling and operational readiness. Each item is scored as Green, Amber or Red, producing an overall readiness score and a gap list that feeds directly into a remediation plan. The accompanying 10-page PDF explains each check, what good looks like, and the typical time and cost to close common gaps.
The template is purpose-built for organisations. Data protection items reference UK GDPR lawful bases, retention periods under common sector rules, and ICO expectations on data minimisation. The output is concise enough to share with a steering committee in one page, while retaining the underlying detail auditors expect.
Use Cases
Where this template fits
Diagnosing data readiness before an AI pilot
Building a remediation backlog before kickoff
Justifying investment in data infrastructure
Confirming a use case is data-feasible
Standardising readiness assessments across departments
Who It's For
Target audience
Data leads, AI leads, CTOs and operations directors at UK SMEs preparing for their first or second AI deployment.
Want help tailoring this to your business?
Our team helps UK organisations adapt these templates to their specific context, stack and risk profile. Book a free 30-minute consultation and we will show you what good looks like.
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