01
Shadow AI risk register
Tool-by-tool inventory with risk level, exposure type, and recommended response. Sourced from interviews and, on S and M tiers, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.
Service · Centered AI Quickstart
Two weeks to a defensible answer on AI.
A productized AI diagnostic for mission-driven organizations. Shadow AI audit, Copilot readiness check, 5-Driver scoring, and a board-ready 90-day roadmap, delivered in two weeks. $5K to $15K, fixed fee. Funded in part by Microsoft.
Microsoft 5× Solutions Partner
Mission-driven specialization
Board-Ready Promise™
Month-to-month across the Centered AI Practice
Why now
The board question changed. Your answer hasn’t.
The question every board chair is asking this year is some version of “where do we sit on AI?” Most executive directors don’t have a defensible answer.
Meanwhile, staff have already started. 75% of employees use AI at work, sanctioned or not. 80% of small and mid-sized business AI users bring their own tools. The shadow AI inventory across our recent client engagements has found ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Grammarly in every environment we’ve audited, including organizations whose leadership told us, on the intake call, “we don’t use AI here.”
The first question isn’t whether to deploy Microsoft 365 Copilot. It’s what’s already running, what the exposure is, and what a credible next step looks like. That’s what the Centered AI Quickstart delivers in two weeks.
What you get
Five board-ready deliverables in two weeks.
The Quickstart produces written outputs your board, your auditor, and your cyber-insurance broker can act on. No checklist. No recycled deck. No pre-sales call disguised as a workshop.
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5-Driver AI Readiness scorecard
Scoring across Microsoft’s framework: Business strategy, Tech & data, AI strategy, Org & culture, AI governance. A 1-to-3 scale per driver with named gaps.
03
5-stage maturity placement
Where you sit on Microsoft’s official Exploring → Planning → Implementing → Scaling → Realizing model. Common vocabulary for every future Microsoft and partner conversation.
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90-day AI roadmap with 3–5 prioritized use cases
Use cases scored on impact × effort and tagged to a Microsoft Frontier Firm pattern: assistant, human-led agent, or autonomous agent.
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Scoped, priced next-stage proposal
A specific dollar figure for Agent Launchpad ($25K–$50K), Frontier Transformation ($75K–$150K), or “stay on Quickstart insights and reassess in 90 days.” Written in plain English. No bait-and-switch.
How it works
Two weeks, four work streams, one written deliverable.
Week 1
Discovery and diagnostic
- Day 1 Kickoff and 60-minute executive intake interview
- Days 2–4 Shadow AI audit (interviews + Defender for Cloud Apps pull on S and M tiers)
- Days 3–5 Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness diagnostic (identity, data, license posture)
- Days 4–5 5-Driver AI Readiness scoring against Microsoft framework
- End of Week 1 Interim shadow AI exposure picture delivered
Week 2
Synthesis and roadmap
- Days 6–7 Synthesis: placement on 5-stage maturity model, drafting use case roadmap
- Days 8–9 Risk register finalized; next-stage proposal scoped and priced
- Day 10 60-minute executive readout. Board-ready 12-slide deck handed over editable.
- Within 30 days One 30-minute office-hours call to debrief board reaction
Risk reversal
Two structural promises in writing.
Both go into the engagement letter before you sign.
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The Board-Ready Promise™
If, at the end of the engagement, you don’t have a written document you’d be comfortable presenting to your board, we return 100% of the engagement fee. You keep whatever drafts we produced. No questions.
The deliverable is the test, not the hours we logged. If the output isn’t board-grade by anyone’s honest read, the fee comes back. That’s the whole promise.
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The No-Upsell Promise™
The Quickstart includes a scoped, priced next-stage proposal, but only if the data supports it. If you’re not ready for Agent Launchpad or Frontier Transformation, we say so in writing.
The Quickstart is a paid diagnostic, not a sales call dressed up as one. About 25–40% of clients receive a written recommendation to wait. That’s the service working correctly.
Who this is for
Mission-driven leaders who need a credible answer before committing budget.
Centered AI Quickstart is built for executive directors, COOs, CIOs, and board cyber-risk owners at 50–500 person mission-driven organizations: nonprofits, foundations, rural hospitals, FQHCs, and faith-based health systems.
This is the right fit if you have
- An active Microsoft 365 tenant (Business Premium, E3, or E5)
- Board, funder, or insurer pressure on AI governance
- Curiosity about Microsoft 365 Copilot, possibly one or two licenses already purchased experimentally
- A suspicion that shadow AI is happening and no documented picture of what’s running
- Budget for a structured paid diagnostic ($5K–$15K) but not yet for a deployment
This isn’t a fit if
- You don’t have a Microsoft 365 tenant
- You’re already actively deploying Copilot at scale (see our Copilot Kickstart & Guardrails service instead)
- You’re looking for a free pre-sales advisory call
Microsoft alignment
Funded in part by Microsoft. Delivered by a Microsoft 5× Solutions Partner.
Microsoft Copilot + Power Accelerate funding
The Centered AI Quickstart is positioned as the partner-delivered version of Microsoft’s Copilot + Power Accelerate Envisioning & PoC program. The three pricing tiers, $5K (XS), $10K (S), and $15K (M), map to Microsoft’s published funding ceilings for the same engagement size. Microsoft Copilot + Power Accelerate can co-fund the engagement substantially, sometimes fully.
On the scoping call, we confirm Copilot + Power Accelerate eligibility for your tenant before you sign the engagement letter. You’ll know the net cost before you commit.
We hold five Microsoft Solutions Partner designations: Modern Work, Security, Infrastructure & Database Migration, Data & AI, and Business Applications. That’s the partner tier Microsoft funds for productized customer engagements, not a partner trying to break in.
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Modern Work
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Data & AI
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security
- Copilot + Power Accelerate eligible
- Mission-driven specialization
At a glance
Fixed fee. Three tiers. Microsoft funding eligible.
| $5,000 XS · 25–50 users | $10,000 S · 50–200 users | $15,000 M · 200–500 users | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | 2 weeks |
| Executive intake (60 min) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Copilot readiness diagnostic | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 5-Driver AI Readiness scoring | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Shadow AI assessment | Interviews + usage analytics | Defender for Cloud Apps report | Defender for Cloud Apps + 3–5 staff interviews |
| 90-day roadmap with 3–5 use cases | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Next-stage scoped proposal | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Executive readout (60 min) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 30-day post-readout office hours | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft funding eligible | Up to $5K | Up to $10K | Up to $25K |
If you proceed to Centered Agent Launchpad after the readout, the full Quickstart fee applies as a credit against the Launchpad engagement. Tiers can be upgraded mid-engagement; we charge the difference.
In practice
What this looks like in practice.
Community foundation, 60 to 120 staff
Came in with board pressure on AI governance after a funder asked for their AI policy at an annual meeting. Tenant had zero Copilot licenses. Shadow AI audit surfaced ChatGPT and Grammarly in active use across the grants team. Quickstart completed in 10 days; the 12-slide readout went to the next board meeting verbatim.
“We went from having no answer to having a document we were proud to hand to the board. That was the whole ask, and it was done in two weeks.”
Executive DirectorRepresentative client profile
Human services nonprofit, 180 to 300 staff
Leadership suspected shadow AI; the intake confirmed it. The S-tier Defender for Cloud Apps pull identified eight distinct AI tools in use across the organization, with two carrying data-classification exposure the general counsel wanted documented. The 90-day roadmap became the basis for an Agent Launchpad engagement three months later.
“The shadow AI inventory was the thing we didn’t know we needed. Once we saw the tool list, everything else clicked into place.”
COORepresentative client profile
Rural critical-access hospital, 200 to 350 staff
Cyber insurance renewal was three months out. Underwriter had asked for an AI governance statement. The M-tier Quickstart produced the risk register, the maturity placement, and a roadmap the compliance officer could attach to the renewal submission. Microsoft Copilot + Power Accelerate funding offset $15K of the engagement fee.
“The timing worked perfectly. We had something to show the underwriter, and we had a plan for what comes next. Neither existed six weeks ago.”
Chief Information OfficerRepresentative client profile
What comes next
The Quickstart is the first stage of the Centered AI Practice.
Centered AI Quickstart is the Foundation-stage engagement. After it, the path forward, if and only if your data supports it, looks like this:
- Centered Agent Launchpad ($25K–$50K, 4–6 weeks). Build 2–3 production agents on a governed Microsoft 365 Copilot foundation.
- Centered Frontier Transformation ($75K–$150K, 90 days). Microsoft 365 E7 / Frontier Suite upgrade, Agent 365 control plane, AI Center of Excellence design.
- Centered AgentOps Managed Service ($500–$1,500 per agent per month). Ongoing monitoring, governance, and value reporting.
You don’t commit to any of this when you start the Quickstart. The Quickstart’s job is to tell you which next stage, if any, fits. Not sure where to start? A Discovery Sprint can scope the right entry point for your organization.
Common questions
What clients ask before they say yes.
Is this the same thing as Microsoft’s free Copilot Envisioning workshop?
No. Microsoft’s workshop is delivered in Microsoft’s voice and ends in a Copilot license recommendation. The Quickstart is delivered in our voice with mission-driven specialization, produces a written board-ready deliverable, and the recommendation might be “don’t deploy Copilot yet, fix data governance first.” Microsoft can’t tell you that. We can. Microsoft Copilot + Power Accelerate funding can offset most of the Quickstart fee, and we confirm eligibility before you sign.
How is this different from the Copilot Kickstart & Guardrails service?
Different engagement entirely. Copilot Kickstart & Guardrails is the structured Microsoft 365 Copilot deployment: readiness, permissions remediation, Microsoft Purview governance, pilot, adoption. It assumes the decision to deploy has been made. Centered AI Quickstart is the upstream diagnostic that tells you whether you’re ready to deploy, what your shadow AI exposure looks like, and what a credible roadmap costs.
What if we don’t have Microsoft 365 Copilot yet?
That’s the typical Quickstart entry point. Most clients have zero or one or two Copilot licenses purchased experimentally. The Quickstart tells you whether to expand, when, and at what cost.
What’s the difference between the XS, S, and M tiers?
The synthesis methodology is the same. The XS tier ($5K, 25–50 users) does shadow AI assessment through interviews and SharePoint usage analytics. The S tier ($10K, 50–200 users) adds a Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps shadow AI data pull with named tools and user counts. The M tier ($15K, 200–500 users) adds 3–5 staff stakeholder interviews to ground the use-case roadmap in real workflow detail.
Can we add tiers mid-engagement?
Yes. If you start at XS and the executive intake surfaces enough complexity that the S-tier shadow AI pull would be valuable, we can upgrade mid-engagement and charge the difference.
What does the executive readout look like?
60 minutes. 12-slide board-ready deck. Presented to the executive team. Recorded with consent. The slides hand over editable so you can adapt them for your specific board format. Most clients re-present the deck, or a modified version, at their next board meeting.
Will you push us into a bigger engagement after?
No, that’s literally the No-Upsell Promise. We write into the engagement letter that we won’t propose a follow-on unless the data supports it. About 60–75% of Quickstart clients do proceed to Agent Launchpad. The other 25–40% don’t, and we tell them in writing that they shouldn’t yet.
What if our staff resist talking about shadow AI usage?
Common. The shadow AI audit is structured to surface tools without naming individuals when the client prefers. We can produce the risk register at the tool level rather than the user level. The conversation we’ll have on the executive intake addresses how you want this run.
Next step
A 30-minute scoping call.
On the call we figure out which tier fits, confirm Microsoft Copilot + Power Accelerate funding eligibility for your tenant, and answer any questions. No deck. No pitch. You leave with a written quote and a scheduled kickoff date if it’s a fit, or a clear “not yet” if it isn’t.
We respond within one business day. The Board-Ready Promise™ applies to every Quickstart engagement.
Prefer a different starting point? A Discovery Sprint can scope your organization’s readiness before committing to a full diagnostic, or email us at sales@centerednetworks.com.
Thanks, we’ve got it.
A senior member of our team will reply within one business day to set up your scoping call. The Board-Ready Promise™ applies from the moment you sign the engagement letter.
Explore the full Centered AI Practice.
The Quickstart is Stage 1. See how the full ladder works, from diagnostic through Frontier Transformation and Managed AgentOps.