Before the vendor demo

A vendor’s coming in to pitch an AI tool, and you want to go in knowing what to ask. In this session we put together your questions, plus a simple test to run on the tool using your own work.

Who it’s for

Firms with an AI pitch coming up. Whether that’s a new tool, an AI add-on to software you already use, or a vendor pitching as part of a system change.

It works best with whoever will be in the room when the vendor presents.

What happens

Before the session, you fill in a short form about the product, the vendor and what you’re hoping it will do. If the vendor has sent you anything, send it over too.

In the session, we look at what the product claims to do and what it would actually touch in your firm. We work out which questions matter for you. Things like how it handles client information, what happens when it gets something wrong, what any accuracy figures are based on, what it’ll cost over time, and how you’d stop using it if it didn’t work out.

Then we build a simple test. You pick an example of your own work, with client details taken out, and we decide what the tool would need to do with it for you to be convinced.

What you leave with

• A written list of questions for the vendor, in the order you’ll want to ask them
• A test you can run on the tool using your own work
• The template we used, so you can prepare for the next pitch yourselves

The details

2 hours | AUD 4,500
Remote, or in person with travel costs agreed separately.
Up to six people.

Why me

I’ve built AI products myself, at the BBC and at NatWest, and worked closely with AWS, IBM and OpenAI along the way. So I know what’s usually behind a demo, and which questions will show you whether the tool can actually do the job for your firm. More about me

What comes next

If you’d rather I was in the room for the pitch itself, that’s the AI Vendor Review. And once you’ve seen the demo, Evaluating an AI option turns what you’ve learned into a one-page case for the partners.