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Seven questions for an AI agent vendor before you sign

12 October 2026

The owner of a cleaning firm with twenty-two cleaners was offered a scheduling agent: 6,900 NOK a month and 25,000 NOK to set up. The promise was 20% off payroll. The figure turned out to come from a pitch slide about a much bigger company. In the firm's own records, overtime is 8% of what it pays the cleaners; the rest is guaranteed hours, paid whatever the schedule looks like. One question — "twenty per cent of what, and whose figure is it" — would have disposed of that promise in a minute.

This firm is invented, like the others in this article: they all come from our sample reports, written by our audit agent. The vendors' promises in them are invented too, but they are checked in the same way as real ones. And you will hear real ones: in October 2026 we went through the Bitrix24 partner directory for Kazakhstan, and of 225 partners, 39 were already selling "their own AI agent" or a bot.

Seven questions follow. You can ask them tomorrow in the same words.

1. "Where does this figure come from, and whose data was it worked out on?"

The cleaning firm above is one example. Another: a fitness club was promised "20% more sign-ups" along with an assistant at 390 EUR a month. The report gives this one line: it is the vendor's own figure and untested here.

Bad answer: "it's the average result across our clients", "that's what the research shows". Good answer: "it's another firm's figure; give us a three-month export and we'll work out yours". A vendor who asks for your data before naming a percentage already stands apart from the rest.

2. "Which of my payments will disappear or shrink? Name the line"

The vendor of an AI receptionist promised a training centre that one receptionist would be enough for two branches. Classes run in both branches at once in 15 of the week's 23 teaching slots, and each front desk needs a person. So the AI receptionist saves no money. The owner of a haulage firm was counting on a route planner at 14,900 NOK a month to mean one truck fewer. All 16 trucks are out every day, and there is no spare capacity.

Bad answer: "you'll free up a hundred hours", "you'll be able to manage with fewer people". Good answer: a specific payment — overtime, an outside contractor, a subscription — and what it comes to today. Or a plain statement that no payment will change, that the benefit lies elsewhere, and where exactly.

3. "What share of enquiries does the software resolve on its own, and how did you measure it?"

A service centre was offered a bot at 150,000 KZT plus 25,000 KZT a month. The vendor did not say what share of conversations the bot resolves without a person. A dental clinic was promised that the assistant "answers everything itself". It hands medical questions over to a person, and those are about a third of the clinic's calls.

Bad answer: "nearly everything", "up to 80%" — with not a word on where or how it was counted. Good answer: a number, the way it was counted, and a list of what the software does not do at all. And alongside it, how many hours a month your people will spend checking it.

4. "What is it allowed to do without a person? A list will do"

Reading, drafting, sending, changing a record: those are four different permissions. Our sales agent has a short list. It finds companies and drafts an email, and the email goes only after a person says yes. If there is too little data on a company, the agent declines to write, and we do not override that refusal.

Bad answer: "it's smart, it won't do anything it shouldn't", "we'll set it all up as we go". Good answer: three lists — does it itself, does it with approval, never does it — and an answer on who switches it off, and how. More on those lists in our article on who answers for an agent's mistake.

5. "What will the model see of my customers' data, and where will it be kept?"

The model an agent runs on usually sits on a third company's servers. Whatever the agent reads goes there: correspondence, names, amounts. Our audit agent replaces the names of a firm's customers with "Client 0001" before the model sees the data.

Bad answer: "it's all secure", "the data doesn't go anywhere" — when the model is external. Good answer: a list of what is sent, what is hidden before sending, where it is stored, and how it is deleted when you leave. Whether your customers' data may be treated this way remains your decision.

6. "Can I try it for a month on my own system and leave without a penalty?"

The training centre's contract runs for 12 months: 150,000 KZT to set up and 70,000 KZT a month, which is 990,000 KZT in the first year. The shortage of hands it is meant to fix lasts the four weeks of enrolment. The opposite example is in the report on the haulage firm: a reporting module at 690 NOK a month with no minimum term. And the report advises the dental clinic to take the reminder bot for a one-month trial, with one step before paying: the vendor confirms that the bot can connect to the clinic's booking system.

Bad answer: "the discount only comes with an annual contract", "we'll talk about connecting it once you've paid". Good answer: a trial month, one number by which the trial counts as a success, and written confirmation that the software works with yours.

7. "When would you tell me not to buy?"

A vendor who is thinking about your firm can name such a case: too few enquiries, what the software needs is not written down anywhere, a rule in your existing software would do. Each of our nine sample reports has a passage that says outright: do not buy this for now.

Bad answer: "our agent suits any business". Good answer: two or three conditions under which the vendor would advise you to wait. Best of all is a vendor who tests those conditions on you, with questions of their own.

A good vendor is not the one with every answer, but the one who says to some questions: "I don't know — let's work it out on your data."

Before the meeting, get three numbers of your own ready

You have nothing to set the vendor's answers against until you have your own numbers. There are three, and all of them are already in your systems and paperwork.

1. The number they promise to improve, and what it was last month. If they promise to cut payroll, open the payroll sheet and work out what share of it is overtime. If they promise more sales, count how many enquiries in a hundred end in an order.
2. The payments that could change. Go through a month's bank statement and write down everything that depends on the volume of work: overtime, contractors, subscriptions. If the list is empty, any "saving" in the proposal is hours, not money.
3. Term and exit. Find the contract term, the set-up fee and the cancellation terms in the proposal, and add up the total for the first year.

At the meeting, write the answers down next to the questions. Ask for the answers to the first, third and sixth to be sent by email. Whatever the vendor is not prepared to put in writing, do not count as a promise.

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