Tools & Guides
12 questions to ask any AI vendor before you sign
AI proposals are easy to make impressive and hard to compare. These twelve questions cut straight to what matters: where the answers come from, where your data lives, who controls access, and what happens when things go wrong.
Free to use, no email required. Take them into any vendor conversation — including one with us.
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Does it answer from our documents, or from the internet?
Generic answers are cheap. Answers grounded in your own records are the ones you can put in front of a client.
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Can it show the source for every figure it produces?
If a number can't be traced to a document, it can't be checked. Citation should be standard behaviour, not a roadmap item.
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What does it do when the information simply isn't there — guess, or ask?
The honest response to a missing input is a question, not a confident invention.
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Where does our data physically live, and who else's data lives with it?
Shared storage means shared risk. You're entitled to a specific answer, not a shrug.
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Can our data stay in-country?
For many Namibian firms this is a compliance requirement, not a preference. Ask before you sign, not after.
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Does any third-party service see our documents along the way?
Every extra party in the chain is another contract, another jurisdiction, another place your documents can end up.
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Can access be restricted per user — can finance and HR material be walled off?
Need-to-know boundaries exist for a reason. A tool that shows everyone everything is a leak waiting to happen.
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Is every interaction logged and auditable?
When a document matters, you need to be able to see who asked what, and when.
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Who owns the knowledge asset that gets built — us or the vendor?
If you ever leave, does the asset leave with you? Get the answer in writing.
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How does new information get in — and who keeps the knowledge current?
A knowledge base that quietly goes stale is worse than none: it answers confidently from last year's facts.
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What does the bill look like in a heavy month — and can we set a hard cap?
Usage pricing without a ceiling you control is a blank cheque. Ask who holds the pen.
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What happens if it adds no value — do we still pay?
A vendor who is confident in their product can answer this one quickly.
Our Answer
These are the questions we designed Sapient to survive.
Ask us all twelve. Start with the Sapient Platform page — then put the hard ones to us directly.