How to choose an AI service provider: 7 questions.

The short answer

Choose an AI service provider the way you'd choose an accountant: ask who holds your keys, how the work gets checked, who answers at 3 AM, and what happens when they fail. The quality of the answers matters less than whether they answer in plain words.

1. Whose keys?

Your accounts should stay in your name, with the provider's AI borrowing permission you can cancel anytime. If they need your passwords in their vault, walk away.

2. How does work get checked?

"Show done, never say done" is the only acceptable answer. Every task should produce a written record, checked by something that isn't the thing that did the work. If they say "the AI is very accurate," they don't have an answer.

3. Who gets paged when it breaks?

AI breaks at 3 AM. Either their phone rings or yours does. Ask which, and ask what you wake up to: a note, or a fire.

4. What's the guarantee?

A service you can't hold to anything is software with a friendlier website. Ours is in writing: a broken helper we don't fix within 72 hours makes that month free, and a brain that isn't working within one month means every cent back.

5-7. The rest of the list

• How do I leave? Your brain and your data should be exportable, anytime.
• Who owns what the AI learns about my business? You should.
• What does one job cost per month? A number, not a workshop.

Any provider can demo. Few can tell you what happens on a bad night. Ask about the bad night.

Further reading

• The guarantee: the two promises, in writing.
• Your keys, your accounts: what safe borrowing looks like.
• Talk to us: ask us these seven. We keep the answers ready.