The benchmark
The Transport AI Readiness Index.
Everyone says public transport is behind on AI. Nobody measures it. The Index replaces anecdote with a baseline: three dimensions, four bands, real responses, published as the data accrues and never before.
Quick answer
The Transport AI Readiness Index is the economAIcs benchmark of AI readiness across UK public transport, built from anonymised diagnostic responses: a published framework and methodology now, with aggregate results as data accrues.
The definition
What AI readiness means here.
AI readiness in public transport is the measurable distance between how an organisation runs today and what governed, evidence-grade AI on its own data would require: systems that fit, data that answers, governance that permits, and AI already working, governed, on the organisation's own data.
The framework
Three dimensions, 27 points.
- 01
Systems and data
How well the core software fits the way the organisation actually runs, where its data lives, how much senior time goes to manual workarounds, and how fast a trusted number reaches a decision.
- 02
Governance and appetite
Whether there is an agreed view of where AI would pay back first, the state of data protection and AI policy, and whether the board has a mandate or a hope.
- 03
Applied AI today
What is actually deployed, from nothing, through ungoverned public tools, to governed, bespoke AI on the organisation's own data.
The four bands
AI-native
23 to 27
Governed AI working on the organisation's own data, with systems and data to feed it.
Building
16 to 22
Real foundations and real intent: adoption is underway and the gaps are known.
Exploring
8 to 15
Interest without structure: pockets of use, no agreed map, governance behind practice.
Manual
0 to 7
The organisation runs on effort: systems part-fit, data scattered, AI absent or ad hoc.
One rule on top of the scores: AI-native means governed AI actually in use, so the top band additionally requires an Applied AI score of 2 or more. Strong systems and governance without AI in use read as Building, honestly.
Methodology
Honest numbers, or none.
Where the data comes from
Every response to the free economAIcs diagnostic: nine structured questions, each scored 0 to 3 against the three dimensions, plus a self-declared organisation type captured at intake (operator, authority, vendor, consultancy), answered by people who run transport organisations, not by a survey panel.
How it is protected
Aggregated and anonymised. No organisation is ever identifiable in anything the Index publishes, and no individual response is ever published.
When numbers appear
Only when a segment holds enough responses to be meaningful, and every published figure will state its sample size. Until then this page carries the framework, not invented statistics.
What will be published
The distribution across the four bands, dimension averages by segment (operators, authorities, vendors, consultancies), and movement over time as the sector adopts.
Status: the Index is in its collection phase. This page carries the framework and methodology; aggregate results will appear here, with sample sizes, as segments reach meaningful volume.
Straight answers
About the Index.
- What is the Transport AI Readiness Index?
- The economAIcs benchmark of AI readiness across UK public transport. It scores organisations across three dimensions (systems and data, governance and appetite, applied AI today) on a 27-point scale, grouped into four bands from Manual to AI-native. The framework and methodology are published now; aggregate results are published as the data accrues.
- Where does the Index data come from?
- From responses to the free economAIcs diagnostic: nine structured questions scored 0 to 3, completed by transport operators, authorities, vendors and consultancies. Responses are aggregated and anonymised; no organisation is identifiable in published results.
- When will results be published?
- When a segment holds enough responses to be statistically meaningful, and not before. Every published figure will state its sample size. We would rather publish nothing than publish noise.
- How do I find out where my organisation stands?
- Run the free diagnostic. It takes a few minutes, scores you across the same three dimensions the Index uses, and gives you your band and a personalised commentary immediately.
Find out where you stand. Give the sector its baseline.
The free diagnostic scores your organisation across the Index's three dimensions and hands you your band immediately. Your response, anonymised, helps build the benchmark.