How can you select the right AI vendor for your business?

?? You should also contemplate the specific operational enhancements AI can deliver to your business. ?? Strategic Alignment Aligning AI with business strategy is vital. Embedding AI into core processes drives strategic objectives. ?? Technical Compatibility Seamless integration with existing systems reduces friction and enhances efficiency. ?? Regulatory Adherence Adhering to industry regulations ensures responsible AI deployment. ?? Pinpointing precise business needs, ensuring technical fit, and regulatory compliance are pivotal in selecting the right AI vendor.

Before venturing into the market for AI solutions, it is essential to have a concrete understanding of AI's distinct capabilities. Recognizing that AI is not a panacea for all challenges is the first step in avoiding the fruitless pursuit of solutions that do not align with actual needs. By being clear about what AI can and cannot do, you can better align your AI strategy with your business goals and choose vendors whose tools and services match your specific needs. This alignment is critical for ensuring that your investment in AI yields tangible benefits and does not lead to disappointment due to misaligned expectations.

?? With the hype for AI, loads of vendors have brought confusion with aggressive marketing strategies to a crowded market. Some things to look for: ?? Technology comes first: Get to know what AI services and technologies will fit your needs from a trusted and independent source. ?? Measure twice, cut once: Support your AI models and automation with visuals and metrics so you can easily check their performance and evolution. ?? See the bigger picture: AI services are just a small part. For the success and quality of your automations and products, you will need an agile and robust development platform to orchestrate and optimize the AI services and data. This will help with insights for new AI services to implement.

Always ask to see a demo, and ask to what extent it is fully functioning under the hood. It's better to see a demo running on generic data than it is to see a mock-flow of "what it would look like your data". The AI industry is rife with vapourware, so ask to see things in action on real data, even if it's not deployed with another customer as of yet. Finally, if they're offering statistics vs a competitor, ask how they calculated them. Some companies make big claims like "6 times more accurate than our competitors" - by what measure of accuracy? How did you get access to your competitor's solution for benchmarking? Did you use consistent data-sets? Only customers can truly benchmark competitors well, so check these statistics are real.

Selecting an AI vendor goes beyond the initial price tag; it's a strategic choice for future growth. Evaluate the vendor's value against your AI objectives, factoring in the Total Cost of Ownership - upfront costs, licenses, maintenance, even hidden expenses like potential downtime. Beware of risks such as data breaches or vendor lock-in that could add unanticipated costs. The right AI partner offers not just competitive pricing but also aligns with your long-term business vision, driving your performance and giving you an edge in the market.

From a financial institution’s perspective, there is an additional factor to consider - whether the vendor is able to offer an AI solution that satisfy the regulatory requirements imposed by the financial regulators. There are general regulatory outsourcing requirements that financial institutions must comply with - simply put, if the vendor is unable to help the financial institution to satisfy these requirements contractually and operationally, this is a deal breaker. In addition, financial regulators are increasingly looking to impose AI specific requirements so vendors need to delve into these and help the financial firms with their compliance as well.

Before defining objectives and requirements for something that has rightfully been described as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the organization MUST step back and invest in a SIGNIFICANT strategic exercise to fully understand what business they are in and how AI might impact that business tomorrow (Blockbusters thought they were in the video rental business when the internet offered an opportunity to lead the charge into the streaming business; can you say Netflix?). With the dawn of AI, the Implementation CANNOT be based on evolutionary objectives and requirements when attempting to implement something that offers revolutionary capabilities.

It is crucial to select the right AI vendor for your business. Understand Data Privacy: If you will be sharing sensitive data with the AI vendor, ensure that they have robust data security and privacy measures in place. Compliance with data protection regulations is critical. Scalability: The vendors ability to scale their AI solution is crucial. It is essential when your business grows. Flexibility to accommodate changing needs is super important. Seamless Customization and integration: Those are important to be analyzed. The vendors capability to integrate with your existing systems and process should be assessed. Moreover, the vendors must have the ability to customize the AI solution to your specific needs.