Breadth
How much of the team actually uses it, not just the enthusiast.
- 0One or two people use it, when they remember
- 1Some of the team use it on some tasks
- 2Most of the team use it regularly
- 3Everyone whose work it can help, routinely
The Integration Index from The Big AI Secret · Explained
What the numbers actually mean.
The Integration Index asks six questions about how your business uses AI. Each is scored 0 to 3, so the raw total runs to 18. That total is expressed out of 100, so a score reads without needing to know how the instrument is built. This page shows what each score looks like in a real business, and what your stage means for what you do next.
We score what AI is actually doing in your business, not how many tools you have bought. Paying for a chat assistant scores you nothing. A weekly job that now runs without anyone typing it out scores you plenty. Most businesses score low, so a low number is normal, not a telling-off.
← Back to the live figuresThe six things we measure
Six dimensions, scored 0 to 3.
Autonomy
How much of a job it finishes without a person in the middle.
- 0Nobody uses it on real work
- 1It answers questions a person then acts on
- 2It helps with parts of a task. The person owns the task.
- 3It completes whole tasks end to end
Flow
Whether the output moves on without someone carrying it.
- 0A person copies or re-keys the output
- 1It saves in one place, then a person moves it on
- 2It lands where it needs to be, for some workflows
- 3It moves on without anyone carrying it
Measurement
Whether anyone can say what it gave back.
- 0The benefit is a feeling. Nobody has put a number on it.
- 1The benefit is estimated after the fact, not tracked.
- 2Time and cost are tracked for some workflows, and someone owns the figure.
- 3Every task AI completes is counted, by role and by workflow, and the figure is reviewed.
Governance
Whether there are rules people can name and follow.
- 0No rules. Each person decides for themselves what is safe.
- 1Informal norms about what can be pasted in, passed on by word of mouth.
- 2A written policy exists, though not everyone has read it or can name it.
- 3Policy, access controls and an audit trail, all in use and checked.
Access
What happens to a good idea between having it and trying it.
- 0Ideas stall. Nobody knows who to ask.
- 1They wait for one particular person
- 2There is a route, and it is slow
- 3They can try it this week, safely, without asking
The four stages
Add the six up, and you land somewhere.
The six scores become one Index out of 100. Two of the stages also carry a gate, because a high total built on the wrong things is not the stage it looks like.
Transformer 80 to 100 of 100
AI is a lever on how the business is run.
The tell: Capacity plans assume the Agents.
Also requires: Flow, Measurement and Governance of 2 or more
Integrator 60 to 79 of 100
AI completes work inside your systems, and the result is counted.
The tell: Work completes without being prompted.
Also requires: Flow of 2 or more
Implementer 30 to 59 of 100
AI runs in a few chosen workflows. A person still owns the outcome.
The tell: Pockets of real use, nothing connected.
Explorer 0 to 29 of 100
AI is in the building, but not in the business.
The tell: AI is one person's habit, not the team's.
Where the figures come from
Two sources, kept apart on purpose.
Edition 1
research with thousands of businesses, published as Edition 1, 2025/26. It gives the framework and four published stage ranges - Transformer 5 to 10%, Integrator 15 to 20%, Implementer 30 to 35%, Explorer 40 to 45% - from qualitative analysis. It holds no row-level data, so no median, distribution or sector figure can be computed from it, and nobody is placed against it.
The live index
Every business measured on the Integration Index since it opened. This is the only source of any computed figure on the site. The median opens at 30 responses, the stage distribution at 50, and coverage by sector at 50. Below those points we say so rather than publishing something thin.
The headline count on the Index page adds the two together, because counting people is not a statistical claim. No percentage, median or comparison ever uses that total as its denominator.
Common questions
- Where do the comparison figures come from?
- Businesses who answer the two-minute questionnaire, plus thirty-minute AI Analyst interviews scored on the same six dimensions. Your comparison is drawn from businesses in your sector and of your size wherever there are enough of them to be meaningful, and we tell you when there are not.
- Is a low score a bad thing?
- No. Most businesses score low, and the score only tells you where to start. A low score that knows its next move beats a higher one that does not.
- What happens to my answers?
- They become one row in the live index, reported only in aggregate. Quotes are published by role and sector, never by name or firm. The privacy notice has the detail.