How to choose an AI development partner: 10 questions

Questions about the problem

• What would you need to see before promising a result? Good partners ask for data and examples before they quote outcomes.
• What would you not use AI for here? A partner with no answer is selling, not advising.
• How will we measure success, and what is the baseline? Expect specific measures agreed up front.

Questions about the build

• How do you test accuracy before go-live, and after every change?
• Where do people approve or override the system’s decisions?
• Which models and hosting will you use, and can we change later without a rebuild?
• Who owns the code, prompts, data and test sets at the end?

Questions about working together

• Can we start with a short, fixed-scope proof stage on our own data?
• Who on your team will actually do the work, and will we speak to them directly?
• What happens after launch: monitoring, support and improvements?

What a good answer sounds like

Specific, honest and testable. A strong partner proposes a small first step, shows you how results will be measured, and is comfortable saying “we don’t know yet, let’s find out on your data”. That is the standard we hold ourselves to at Quibo.