Transparent by design

How NextStepAI reaches a recommendation.

Core scoring is deterministic and reproducible. AI can enhance explanations and adaptive questioning, but the prototype does not rely on a black-box score.

Digital Maturity /100

Digital Presence 15 · Cloud & Productivity 15 · Customer Management / CRM 20 · Marketing & Analytics 15 · Cybersecurity 10 · Automation 10 · AI Adoption 15.

AI Readiness /100

Leadership, Data Availability, Employee Skills, Digital Workflow and Process Maturity each contribute 20 points.

Pain Priority

Severity 30% + Frequency 20% + Business Impact 30% + Readiness Gap 20%.

Recommendation logic

The engine identifies dependencies before advanced tools. For example, a CRM may be prioritised before an AI chatbot when lead data is fragmented; analytics may be prioritised before AI optimisation when performance is not measurable.

Indicative ROI

Manual hours per week × hourly cost × 52 estimates current annual labour exposure. A conservative automation factor tied to the recommended solution estimates potential time value. This is decision-support only, not a guaranteed result.

Technology & third-party components

NextStepAI-developed: assessment workflow, deterministic scoring logic, priority rules, explanation structure, roadmap generation and competition-specific interface.

Third-party / deployment dependent: web framework or hosting, database/auth provider, chart library, PDF/print capability, and optional pre-trained AI API. The final competition submission should list the exact components actually used.