Questions You Should be Asking Your AI Solutions Company Before Making a Decision

AI or artificial intelligence can change the way automation works in your firm. It can also help you manage the large volumes of data that otherwise go unused. There are so many other things that AI solutions do for your business. It is alright if your firm is not strong in AI technologies. You can work with an AI solutions company to implement your ideas and make your infrastructure future-ready. 

But then, this segment is growing rapidly and you will find AI solutions providers in all budget categories. Given that you do not still understand the nuances of AI solutions you might find it confusing to pick the right company for your job. Look at the firm’s experience, the clientele, skill set of the team, technologies used, pricing options, and other aspects. And finally, before you make your final decision, ask this chosen firm the following questions. 

• What are the cost saving advantages of utilizing an enterprise AI platform or an AI solution company?

This would be the first question to ask. You might probably already have the answer to this but an expert in the field will help you think of all those applications that you had not included. Instead of hearing some random people or even your competitors talk about the need for an AI platform based implementation in your firm, you should hear it from the pros. You will understand how much money you actually spend and how that money spent is actually going to help your business. 

• What kind of AI solutions do you provide?

From the types of AI solutions to the technologies used by the firm, several factors tell you how credible they are. Remember that every organization’s requirements are different and so a firm that says that it only handles one type of AI might not necessarily be solving your issue as expected. To avoid gaps and challenges in the later stages of implementation, it is better to go with companies that handle different AI types and appropriate combinations as required. 

• Is it possible to provide a comprehensible ROI for choosing to spend on AI solutions?

Some companies merely start because their competitors are already using AI solutions. But what about the relevance of the technology to you business model? Discuss with the AI solutions provider to understand if the company would be able to clearly tell you about the return on investment analysis for the said implementation. Unless you are able to get estimates on the metrics it would be difficult to understand the real impact. If the given metrics are not fulfilled you can always choose to quit and go for a different AI vendor. 

• What measures have you taken for risk analysis and planning?

Even with the well-thought implementations there tend to be some inherent risks. What are the measures that the firm has taken to analyse, avoid and manage risks? Some machine learning models could be biased. Improper data processing might lead to overfitting in some pattern recognition strategies which then causes too much deviation from the predicted output. These are a few examples of the problems that might arise in the later stages of AI solution implementations. Talk to your AI solutions company to understand the strategies they use for feature selection and the measures they take in order to keep the decisions as close to the real-time occurrences as possible. 

• Can the solutions work with the current models?

Transitions can be difficult especially in large organizations and in companies that have very little penetration of smart technologies. If you have an old business, you should ask the AI vendor if it would be possible to work with conventional systems. Partial integration into the current model might often be the case instead of fully replacing the authority. 

• How will the AI solutions handle security concerns?

There was a time when security was thought to be the biggest vulnerability of AI. The truth however is that as more and more AI technologies are evolving, cybersecurity is taking a new shape. So, ask your firm about the security measures that come with the service. Some depend on more complicated yet connected technologies like Blockchains and others might simply have secure encryption at different layers. A credible AI solutions company will be able to explain to you about the security strategies they offer and also show how this would be crucial for your business. 

• What kind of data would be required for the machine learning models proposed? What does this mean for your organisation?

Based on the use case, the data point for training the algorithm varies. Remember that a skilled-data scientist might be working to prepare the stage by modelling the ML data training and evaluating the results as well. 

A company that is able to answer all your questions patiently would be the most suitable vendor to go with. Even if you find minor discrepancies in the beginning you should take it up with the vendor so that you can be sure that the vendor’s understanding of the scope is aligned with your expectations.