The AI Nativity Index (AINI) is a scorecard any CEO or function lead can use to quickly assess how AI-native their team actually is. It’s fast, honest, and designed for operators.

Use it during quarterly planning, team reviews, or when something feels off and you want clarity.

What It Measures

AINI breaks down “AI-native” into five parts. For each one, score yourself 1 to 5.

1. Data Foundation

Do you have clean, structured data that AI can use?

2. AI Adoption

Is meaningful work being done by or with AI — not just tooling, but real contribution?

3. Workflow Integration

Is AI part of the team’s daily systems and triggers, or just bolted on the side?

4. Cultural Fluency

Does your team know how to use AI well, and do they push its limits?

5. Strategic Leverage

Is AI helping you ship faster, cut costs, raise margins, or unlock things you couldn’t do before?

How to Score It

Each of the five dimensions has a weight:

• Data Foundation: 20%
• AI Adoption: 25%
• Workflow Integration: 20%
• Cultural Fluency: 15%
• Strategic Leverage: 20%

Give yourself a score from 1 to 5 in each category. Multiply by the weight. Add everything up. You’ll get a final score between 0 and 5.

What Your Score Means

0 to 1.4 — Manual-first

Fully human-driven. No infrastructure in place.

1.5 to 2.9 — Augmented

Some AI use, but it's not core to how the team operates.

3.0 to 3.9 — Embedded

AI is supporting core workflows. It’s part of how the team gets work done.

4.0 to 5.0 — Autonomous

AI is essential. The function runs on it.

Example: Sales

Data Foundation: 5 → 1.0

AI Adoption: 5 → 1.25

Workflow Integration: 4 → 0.8

Cultural Fluency: 4 → 0.6

Strategic Leverage: 5 → 1.0

Total: 4.65 out of 5 → Autonomous

Sales is likely using AI agents to write outreach, summarize calls, coach reps, and forecast pipeline. It’s foundational and improving over time.

Example: Engineering

Data Foundation: 3 → 0.6

AI Adoption: 2 → 0.5

Workflow Integration: 2 → 0.4

Cultural Fluency: 2 → 0.3

Strategic Leverage: 2 → 0.4

Total: 2.2 out of 5 → Augmented

Engineering may have GitHub Copilot enabled or some internal scripts, but AI isn’t central to how the team builds or ships product yet. Still early.

When to Use It

• Quarterly planning
• Team offsites
• 1:1s with function heads
• Product reviews
• Anywhere you need a gut check on AI progress

Download the Template

I put together a simple Excel/Sheets version of the AINI.

📥 Download it here:

AI Nativity Index Scoring Template

Includes:

• Editable scoring rows
• Weights and formulas pre-set
• Easy to duplicate across teams or quarters

Final Thought

You don’t need a 10-page AI strategy.

You need to know where AI is actually changing how your team works — and where it’s not.

This tool gives you the signal.