In twenty-five questions over about eight minutes, you get a profile of your reported AI adoption across six dimensions. You can use it to compare perspectives with your team and choose a practical experiment.
Immediate results. No sales call required. Your result is on the screen the moment you finish.
Sample result · Level 1 · lowest reported dimension: People & Culture
Larry Rupp, PEPresident & CEOKeller Associates
“We brought in [Dan Cumberland Labs and Pacemark] to figure out where AI actually fits at a 250-person firm spread across 12 offices. They talked with almost a third of the firm before recommending anything, then handed us a clear, prioritized plan: what to do first, what to do later.”
What you walk away with
Know your next right move.
Your headline level
You get your score across six dimensions, scored 1 to 5, on a radar that's quick to read and easy to put in front of your partners or board.
An area to examine
Your lowest score highlights an area to examine. It is a starting hypothesis, and your team’s evidence may point to a different priority.
Your first move
You get a proposed next step to discuss and test with your team, with attention to the evidence, dependencies, and expected result.
Lindsey SailorsHead of TA Strategy & OperationsDropbox
“Pacemark was the first maturity model that showed my team where we actually stand, AND what to do next. Instantly clarifying.”
What is Pacemark?
An evidence-informed AI maturity framework.
Pacemark structures your reported view across six dimensions and five levels, informed by company observations and academic research. Direct instrument validation is still pending.
Reconciled research footprint ·
405 Named businesses represented (at least)
Named businesses that are the subject of, or mentioned in, the earlier catalogue and accepted public case and conversation records. We merge names confirmed to refer to the same operating organization. Products and internal units are merged with their operator; academic/public bodies, unresolved names and the anonymized engagement are excluded. This is not an ultimate-parent or legal-entity census.
174 Earlier company cases with dimension coding
A case is a record about a company. These earlier records have evidence classified against at least one of the six maturity dimensions. Some concern the same organization; one is anonymized. They are not 174 complete company assessments.
43 October 22 company action cases
Cases added in October describing what a named company planned, piloted or implemented. Acceptance means the source and claim were checked; it does not mean the action succeeded or the company has a complete maturity score. Missing evidence remains unknown.
313 Earlier catalogue source entries
Individual documents or records counted in the earlier company catalogue through October 6; this is an entry count, not a deduplicated publication count. Several entries can concern one company or underlying account. This excludes the separately counted supplemental literature and new public conversation events.
37 Newly coded public conversation events
Publicly available conversations about operators’ experiences, newly reviewed and classified in October. One event is one conversation record, not one new company. These are not new interviews conducted by Pacemark and may concern companies counted elsewhere.
The October 22 total reconciled 277 legacy organizations, 43 company-case organizations and 12 additional event-subject businesses to 332. “October 22 company action cases” refers to that historical set of 43. For that historical set, we had enough evidence in ten cases for eleven limited Pilot-level ratings of specific dimensions for the reported task or trial, and we produced no new complete firm profiles. The latest coverage additions carry no new firm scores. The earlier catalogue has 174 case records and document totals adding to 313 across its source entries, while the 37 later public conversation events remain separate; these measures use different, overlapping units, and the overall unique-document total remains unknown. The foundational 30, supplemental 50 published and 39 context study families remain separate registers, with no combined study total.
All 43 additional cases were assessed against the existing rubric. Ten support 11 limited Pilot-level dimension codes for the reported task or trial. None provides a complete six-dimension company maturity profile; missing evidence remains unknown.
Pacemark uses six dimensions to structure your reported view of AI adoption. The questions cover leadership, people, data, workflows, technology, and governance.
01
Strategy & Leadership
Is AI owned, funded, and named at the top, or is it nobody's job?
02
People & Culture
Can most of your staff use AI well, or only a few power users?
03
Data Readiness
Can AI reach your project history and specs, or only what gets pasted in?
04
Workflows & Operations
Is AI inside how you produce proposals and submittals, or bolted on the side?
05
Technology Infrastructure
A sanctioned platform, or personal accounts and idle licenses?
06
Governance & Ethics
Do your AI rules hold up on stamped work and client data?
Jay PapasanCo-author, The ONE Thing
“Most leaders know AI matters but don't know what to do first. Dan walked me through his maturity model and it does exactly that. It turns an overwhelming topic into a clear picture of where you are and the next right move. It gives the kind of clarity a team needs to make real progress.”
What your result looks like
What you get, start to finish.
Illustrative sample data: this example shows how Pacemark connects a maturity level, the lowest-scoring dimension, and a practical first move. Your result will reflect your own answers.
Sample headline level
1
Ad Hoc
The lowest reported level sets this illustrative headline.
Sample area to examine
People & Culture
People use AI on their own. No strategy, policy, or one person steering.
Sample first 90 days
30Name one executive owner.
60Run an intentional pilot.
90Review the evidence.
Where the score comes from
The research behind your score.
As of October 29, 2026, our research covers at least 405 named businesses and operating organizations under the same counting rules. The October 22 footprint of 332 has grown through fourteen reconciled identities and fifty-nine new operators. We have accepted sixty source accounts about work the organizations carried out, including one update about an organization already counted. The total describes research coverage; successful deployments and complete assessments require separate evidence. The research hub separates company observations, academic findings and practitioner hypotheses. It's written for the stack you already run (Autodesk, Bentley, Procore, Trimble, and the rest of what's on your desks), with questions and examples that reflect AEC's project-based, multi-party way of working.
We built the six dimensions and five levels using the company corpus, and the academic review informs how we interpret them. You answer the assessment, it applies that framework, and your result appears when you finish. The score reflects your reported view and has not been directly validated. See the evidence and limitations.
Your result reflects your reported view. The lowest score highlights an area to examine; the full profile and evidence from your team help you decide what to test next.
Graybar’s CFO told Deloitte that quote preparation had moved from hours or days to minutes. The account describes data preparation, task-specific access and human checking before customer delivery.
The article describes quotation tooling in development alongside sales and customer-service pilots. It provides no controlled comparison or disclosed quality or rework result.
Possible next test. If quote preparation delays your team, you could propose comparing preparation time and correction work on comparable requests before deciding whether to expand.
Inside one engagement · a 250-person civil engineering firm
"He raised our awareness of what's coming, pushed us to think hard about using AI responsibly, and worked with our team to build a practical roadmap for putting it to work."
James Bledsoe, PEBoard Chair
Board-level engagement · practical AI roadmap
"I knew AI was something I should be using, but I had no idea where to start. He changed that."
Stillman Norton, PEArea Manager & Board Secretary
From "no idea where to start" to ideas in use
"As an outside board member, I've sat through a lot of presentations. His was engaging and educational, and it didn't matter what level of AI knowledge you walked in with— there was a way for every person in the room to take part."
Julie ShiflettOutside Board Member · Founder, Northwest CFO
Real, applicable takeaways · no sales pitch
"[Dan Cumberland Labs and Pacemark] gave us a prioritized plan and the guidelines to adopt it responsibly. It was the right approach for us, and helped us get buy-in on using AI throughout the firm."
Eric Roundy, PE, BCEESenior Wastewater Engineer & Board Treasurer
AI does the work · a licensed engineer still approves
What firms get back
"Dan's AI infrastructure is changing everything for our agency— it's the foundation taking us from seven to eight figures."
Amanda NorthcuttFounder & CEO, Level Up Creators
20% profit-margin lift · 10+ hrs/week saved per person
"Taking part in Dan's AI workshop was an excellent investment of my scarce time. Strongly recommend to speed up your learning curve."
Nathalie Ramanantsoa-FratExecutive Advisor
20+ hrs/month reclaimed · $84K/yr per professional
"It generated in one minute seven emails that I can pull the trigger on immediately."
Julie BollLeadership Coach
$230K+/yr recaptured at billing rates
"The ROI is so worth it, it'll blow your mind. This has made my workflow so much easier."
Mel Varghese, PhDFounder of "Selling the Couch"
600+ hours of content automated
Who it's for
For the leader who has to make AI count.
You're a principal, a COO, the ops or IT lead who is trying to figure this out for the team. The board is asking what the firm is doing about AI. The answer is fuzzier than anyone wants to admit.
Pacemark gives you a profile to discuss with your leadership team. You can compare it with the work your people do, examine the dependencies, and choose an experiment with an owner and a review date.
Who built this?
Dan Cumberland Labs
Pacemark is a Dan Cumberland Labs project. Dan Cumberland has built and sold software companies, and now works with engineering, construction, and professional-services firm leaders on putting AI to work— auditing how teams actually operate, building a roadmap, and standing up systems people use every day.
Pacemark draws on research covering at least 405 named businesses and operating organizations. We use the evidence to frame questions about how your team adopts AI, and your answers provide a starting point for discussion.
Twenty-five questions, about eight minutes, and you get your reported profile, an area to examine, and a proposed experiment. If you want to talk it through after that, the Signal Call is free, and your results set the agenda.
