How to brief an AI consultancy

Imagine you run customer support and want help preparing replies from order records and the policy library. Tell the consultancy what starts a request, what the adviser reads, what they decide and what they save afterwards. Include a missing order reference and a refund that falls outside the usual rules. Those awkward cases belong in the brief before anyone chooses a model or shows you a polished answer.

Mercury starts its published method with the team’s current work. Data Science UA includes understanding requirements and defining the project in its consulting offer.^1,2,3

Ask each firm to take your example through that early work. You want to find out which systems, information and people the proposed solution would depend on, before those dependencies become surprises in the build.^1,2,3

The firms sell different kinds of help. Data Science UA offers a complete solution or people to work in your team, which it calls outstaffing. Fifty One Degrees describes working alongside the client and delivering a production system in the client’s environment.^4,5,6

Ask each bidder which arrangement it proposes: extra people, a system built for you or an ongoing service. In the support example, someone still needs to approve refund rules, decide when an adviser takes over and grant access to customer records. Put names against those jobs. Managing a developer in your team is a different task from overseeing a supplier that runs the finished workflow. Neither arrangement removes the need for an owner on your side.

Nexus says an engineer builds the first process with your team and shows it running in your own tools. Its offer includes staying to improve that first version.^7,8

For the support-reply brief, this offers help carrying the business rules into the tools advisers already use. Ask Nexus to make the first process specific: which order records it reads, which replies it prepares and which refund decisions stay with your team. Put that proposed division of work beside the staffing and custom-build offers, so you can compare how much implementation and later improvement each supplier takes on.^7,8

Give bidders the same response headings: first result, how you will check it, people assigned, assumptions, dependencies, exclusions and the next spending decision. Ask about a project that resembles the hard part of your brief. A familiar sector name is less useful than hearing what the proposed team built, how the client accepted it and who maintained it. Treat published customer results as the supplier’s claims until your own reference checks support the comparison.

Brainpool says project assets transfer to the client. Fifty One Degrees publishes commitments to hand over code and documentation.^9,10,11

Use those statements to ask what you would own or license. The proposal still needs to list the assets it will hand over; a website promise is not that list.^9,10,11

Keep a simple sheet with a row for each requirement: why it matters, the evidence requested, the supplier’s answer and the question still open. Mark the things you cannot compromise on. An unanswered hosting or access requirement needs resolving before you compare prices. A preference can be weighed against another benefit, provided the person responsible agrees.

Put the list of work the supplier will do beside the work it excludes. A lower opening fee might buy a study of whether the idea works; another might include a live release. Group comparable proposals before weighing their prices. In the support example, a demonstration that drafts replies is different from a service connected to the order system that passes difficult cases to an adviser.

Write down the route you prefer, the conditions still open and what evidence would change your mind. When asking for references, focus on handover if your team will take over, or changes after launch if the supplier stays. Before accepting a proposal, have the person responsible explain what the organisation gets and what it must still do. That answer should survive the sales meeting.