Most PI Owners Use a Fraction of What They Paid For. Here's How to Tell If You're One of Them.

Ask a PI owner whether the Predictive Index is paying off and you'll usually get a pause. Then: "I think so. We use it for hiring."

That's the problem. PI isn't a hiring tool. It's a talent optimization platform covering hiring, managing, team design and leadership. Yet most organizations use a fraction of it, keep paying the full subscription, and never check what they're getting back.

It's not that PI isn't working. Nobody has checked.

Where PI value leaks

After working with 60+ PI clients worldwide, we see the same patterns again and again:

• PI becomes a hiring-only tool. Candidates take the Behavioral Assessment, someone glances at the pattern, and that's the last time anyone opens the platform until the next open role.
• Managers never learn to use it. Employees get assessed, but their managers don't use the data in 1:1s, feedback or development plans. The insight sits in a dashboard nobody visits.
• The person who championed PI leaves. The HR leader who bought it moves on. Nobody owns it, and usage quietly drops off.
• The business changes and PI doesn't. New leaders, reorgs, acquisitions and new roles come along. Job Targets go stale and teams get rebuilt without anyone looking at the data.

Every one of these is ROI you've already paid for and aren't collecting.

Why it happens: certification isn't an implementation plan

Most PI rollouts follow the same script. Buy the licence, certify a couple of people, send the assessment link, and wait for the magic.

The organizations that get full value do three things differently:

1. An executive sponsor owns success. Not just HR. Someone in the C-suite expects to see PI in hiring decisions, team conversations and leadership meetings.
2. A real Champion network. Our implementation standard is roughly one trained PI Champion per 50 employees. One certified admin can't carry a whole organization.
3. Managers are trained, not just informed. Adoption happens when managers use PI every week, not when they get a login email.

The three stages of PI value

We look at PI maturity in three stages:

1. Foundation

Clear objectives, executive ownership, trained leaders and Champions, a properly configured platform, and assessments completed across the organization.

2. Activation

PI built into everyday work: Job Targets on every key role, structured hiring, onboarding, manager 1:1s, development plans, performance conversations and your HR systems. This is where most organizations stall.

3. Optimization

Measuring adoption and outcomes, reporting ROI, holding a regular review cadence, and growing the Champion network. As benchmarks, we aim for 85% monthly active users and 80% of Champions certified.

If you're honest, which stage are you in?

The easiest win: get managers using Obi

If you're on PI's Inspire plan, your managers already have Obi, PI's AI coach. Before a tough conversation, a manager tells Obi who they're meeting and what's going on. Obi uses that person's PI behavioral data to suggest what to say, how the person is likely to react, and what to do next.

This is the fastest way we know to get managers using PI every week instead of once a year. Our free Obi Prompt Guide for Managers gives them ready-made prompts so they can start today.

Score your PI in five minutes

You can't fix what you haven't measured. So we built the PI Value Checklist: 34 checks across Foundation, Activation and Optimization. Tick what's true for your organization today and you'll see where you land:

• 0–11: Shelfware risk. You're paying for PI but barely using it.
• 12–23: Partial value. PI works in pockets, but most of the value is still on the table.
• 24–34: Optimizing. PI is part of how you run the business.

You'll also get your score by phase and focus area, plus your three biggest gaps. Those gaps show exactly where the value is leaking.

Score your PI with the free PI Value Checklist →

Then fix the gaps

Once you know your score, there are two ways forward:

• Do it yourself with the PI Implementation Playbook, our 90-day roadmap for moving from certification to full use.
• Get help. Book a free 60-minute PI Value Consultation. We'll go through your results, show you where PI is underused, and give you a practical plan to get full value from what you already pay for.

PI is one of the most powerful people tools on the market, but only if you use it. Find out how much of it you're actually using.