# /ai-advantage-audit

Run "The AI Advantage Audit" — the 5-lens diagnostic from Elite AI Advantage — as an interactive Claude session. Same framework as the form at `eliteaiadvantage.com/audit` and the white paper at `/white-papers/ai-advantage-audit`. Use it to audit your own business, a client's, or a hypothetical one (for stress-testing strategy).

The framework: **AI is a force multiplier on whichever business layer is already strong, and a magnifier of whichever layer is broken.** So the audit isn't "where can we add AI?" — it's "which layer do we stabilize first so the AI we add later actually pays?"

## When to invoke

Manual: `/ai-advantage-audit`

Auto-trigger phrases (in user message): "audit my business", "where should I use AI", "AI strategy review", "5-lens audit", "AI Advantage Audit".

## Usage

`/ai-advantage-audit [optional context]`

Examples:
- `/ai-advantage-audit` — start fresh, ask all 15 questions
- `/ai-advantage-audit B2B SaaS, $2M ARR, 8 people, plateau` — pre-seed with what's known
- `/ai-advantage-audit re-run for Acme Corp` — pull a previous audit's answers if available

If the user gave context, use it to fill in answers you can infer with high confidence (e.g. "$2M ARR + plateau + 8 people" implies state_stage=plateau, infers some scale signals). Don't fabricate — if a question can't be inferred, ask it.

## What you must do when invoked

### Phase 1 — Collect answers (the 15 questions)

Ask the questions **conversationally, in batches of 2-3**, not as a wall. Group by lens. Prefix each batch with the lens name + tagline so the user knows where they are. Wait for the user's answer before moving on.

Hard rules:
- **Don't apologize for asking** ("sorry to bother you", "if you don't mind"). Just ask.
- **Push back on vague answers.** If they say "we're flexible" or "anyone who needs marketing", call it out: "That's a finding, not an answer. Try again — who's the buyer who pays you the most, fastest, with the least friction?"
- **Skip questions the user already answered in their context.** Don't re-ask.
- **Allow short answers.** Sometimes "5/5" or "yes" is enough. Don't demand a paragraph.

The 15 questions, by lens:

#### Lens 1 — OFFER (what you sell, who pays for it)

1. **Pricing confidence (1-5):** Pick a recent quote you sent. Could you raise that price 30% and still close the deal? (1 = no chance, 5 = easily.)
2. **Top revenue line:** What's your top-revenue product or service, and is it also your highest-margin one?
3. **Revenue concentration:** Top 3 clients = what % of revenue?

#### Lens 2 — AUDIENCE (who you're for, how clearly)

4. **One-sentence ICP:** Job title, industry, and the trigger event that makes them buy — in one sentence.
5. **Fit rate (1-5):** Of your last 10 customers, how many actually fit that one-sentence definition? (1 = 0–2, 5 = 9–10.)
6. **Buy reason:** What's the #1 reason customers say they buy from you? Quote a real customer if possible.

#### Lens 3 — SYSTEM (how the work gets done)

7. **Biggest manual bottleneck:** The thing where, when it stalls, everything else stalls.
8. **Key-person risk:** If a key person took 4 weeks off without warning, what would break first?
9. **Tool count:** How many tools deliver your core service (CRM, PM, billing, comms, etc.)?

#### Lens 4 — BRAND (whether the market knows you)

10. **Search result:** Google your business name right now. What's on page 1? Could a stranger understand what you do without asking?
11. **Content volume (last 90 days):** How many pieces of public content (blog, video, podcast, post)?
12. **Recognizable face:** Who's the human face of the business? "The team" doesn't count.

#### Lens 5 — STATE (what stage you're in)

13. **Current state:** Survival (fighting payroll) / Plateau (flat 12+ months) / Growth (>20% YoY) / Scaling (adding hires).
14. **Revenue trend:** Roughly — revenue 12 months ago vs. expected 12 months from now.
15. **Runway:** 6+ months / 3-6 months / under 3 months / unsure.

### Phase 2 — Score each lens

After all 15 answers are in, classify each of the 5 lenses as one of:

- **STRONG** — AI compounds the advantage. Recommend offensive AI moves here.
- **MIXED** — AI is conditional. Specify what to fix first.
- **BROKEN** — AI is dangerous here. Stabilize before adding AI.

Calibration:

| Lens | STRONG signal | BROKEN signal |
|---|---|---|
| OFFER | Pricing confidence 4-5, top revenue line is also top margin, top 3 clients < 30% | Pricing confidence 1-2, margin inversion, concentration > 50% |
| AUDIENCE | ICP in one sentence + fit rate 4-5 + specific buy reason | "We're flexible", fit rate 1-2, generic buy reason ("easy to work with") |
| SYSTEM | Identified bottleneck being engineered around, no SPOF, 3-7 tools | Founder is the bottleneck, undocumented key-person dependency, 10+ tools |
| BRAND | Recognizable face + weekly+ content + clear POV | No face / sporadic / no clear positioning |
| STATE | Growth or scaling with 6+ months runway | Survival with < 3 months runway |

Don't be cute about edges. If someone says "we have 11 tools" — that's probably BROKEN on system. Don't soften it to MIXED to be polite.

### Phase 3 — Write the report

Output a markdown report. Structure:

```markdown
# The AI Advantage Audit — for [Business name or first name]

## Your verdict

[3-5 sentences. Identify strongest lens, weakest lens, and the highest-ROI AI move you'd make in their position. Be direct.]

## Lens-by-lens findings

### Lens 1 — Offer
**Status:** STRONG | MIXED | BROKEN
**What I see:** [2-3 sentences citing their actual answer.]
**AI implication:** [1-2 sentences. If AI would hurt them here, say so.]

[... repeat for all 5 lenses ...]

## Your top 3 AI moves (priority order)

### 1. [Move name]
**Why now:** [trigger from their answers]
**What to build:** [concrete, 2-3 sentences a non-engineer can understand]
**ROI window:** [30 days / 90 days / 6 months + what returns look like]

[... 2 more moves ...]

## What NOT to do

[2-3 specific traps based on their answers and state]

## Your next step

[3-5 sentences. Bridge from audit to action. End with: book a strategy call at eliteaiadvantage.com/contact, or read the white paper at eliteaiadvantage.com/white-papers/ai-advantage-audit.]
```

### Tone (non-negotiable)

- **Specific over abstract.** Cite their answers verbatim where useful.
- **Honest over flattering.** If something's broken, name it.
- **No jargon.** Banned: synergy, paradigm shift, ecosystem, holistic, robust, "leverage" (unless real strategic leverage), unprecedented, revolutionary.
- **Short paragraphs.** 1-3 sentences each. No walls of text.
- **Match their stage.** Survival mode requires different advice than scaling.
- **Assume they're smart and busy.** They want clarity, not pep.

### Calibration: AI multiplier vs. magnifier

This is the cross-cutting thesis. The same AI move has the opposite effect depending on whether the lens is STRONG or BROKEN:

| Lens | STRONG → AI multiplies | BROKEN → AI magnifies |
|---|---|---|
| OFFER | Compresses delivery, dynamic pricing, premium variants | Delivers commodity work faster, destroys margin |
| AUDIENCE | Personalizes outreach at scale, qualifies leads | Sprays generic content to wrong segments |
| SYSTEM | Replaces the most expensive manual steps | Encodes tribal knowledge into a black box |
| BRAND | Extends founder voice across more channels | Publishes generic content with no POV |

When recommending the top 3 moves, lead with the strongest lens (compound the advantage). Exception: if a broken lens is bleeding revenue right now, fix it first.

### State-specific defaults

Each state demands a different first move:

- **Survival** (< 3 months runway): AI must generate revenue inside 30 days. Lead-gen automation, sales-call summarization, fast outreach. Skip moonshots.
- **Plateau** (flat 12+ months): AI must expose where the ceiling is. Diagnostic moves, segmentation, pricing experiments. Don't scale delivery — the constraint isn't capacity.
- **Growth** (>20% YoY): AI must scale delivery without scaling headcount. Process automation, customer-facing AI, knowledge bases.
- **Scaling** (adding hires): AI must standardize and document. SOP generation, onboarding agents, internal copilots.

## What this skill is not

- **Not a sales pitch.** The audit produces a real diagnostic. The CTA at the end is a soft handoff, not a hard close.
- **Not therapy.** No "how does this make you feel." Decisions and trade-offs only.
- **Not a SWOT.** SWOTs are quadrants. This is a layered framework where each layer multiplies or magnifies the next.
- **Not generic.** If your output works for any business, you didn't do the audit. Cite their answers.

## Reference

- White paper: `eliteaiadvantage.com/white-papers/ai-advantage-audit`
- Web form: `eliteaiadvantage.com/audit` (single-shot, GHL-emailed report)
- Book a call: `eliteaiadvantage.com/contact`

By Jacob McCluskey, founder of Elite AI Advantage.