Don't hire an AI provider until they can answer these questions
A free, print-friendly checklist of around 25 questions that separates a provider who understands your business from one who just wants to sell you agents.
A free print-friendly checklist of questions to vet an AI or managed intelligence provider. Covers approach, oversight, data handling, governance and pricing.
What you'll get
A practical, ready-to-use resource you fill in with your own numbers and keep. No expiring trial, no strings.
What the vetting checklist does
A lot of providers are racing to sell AI right now, and most of the pitches sound the same. The hard part is telling apart the one who will genuinely help your business from the one who wants to drop agents on top of it and move on. The difference shows up in how they answer a handful of pointed questions: about their approach, about who stays accountable for the AI, about where your data goes, and about how they price the work.
This checklist gives you those questions, grouped and ready to use, with a short note on what a good answer sounds like. Take it into the conversation and let their answers do the sorting.
Spot the tool-pushers
Questions that reveal whether a provider starts with your outcomes and a readiness check, or just wants to sell you agents before they understand what your business actually does.
Insist on humans in the loop
Ask who reviews AI output and whether support is local or offshore and AI-only. A responsible provider keeps a real person accountable for every decision the AI touches.
Protect your data
Direct questions on whether your data trains their models, where it lives, and how it stays compliant with HIPAA and CMMC, so your information does not quietly become their training set.
Know what a good answer is
Each question comes with a one-line note on what a solid answer looks like, so you can judge the responses even if AI is new territory for you and your team.
What is inside the checklist
- Around 25 checkbox questions, grouped into five areas, each with a one-line “a good answer looks like”
- Approach: do they start with your outcomes and a readiness assessment, or push tools first?
- Humans in the loop and local support: who reviews the AI output, and is support local or offshore and AI-only?
- Data handling: does your data train their models, and where does it actually live?
- Governance and compliance: HIPAA and CMMC support, audit trails, and monitoring for drift
- Pricing transparency and proof: how they charge, how you exit, and what references or a pilot can show you
The answers matter more than the demo
Want the background first?
If you are still figuring out what this kind of provider even is, our article on what a managed intelligence provider does explains the role in plain English. For how we approach AI the human-centered way, see our Managed Intelligence hub.
How it works
Tell us where to send it
Fill in the short form. Just enough so we know who we're helping and can tailor any follow-up, only if you want it.
Check your inbox
We email your copy right away, and the download is yours to keep. No expiring trial, no login.
Put it to work
Use it on your own, or ask us for a second set of eyes. No pressure either way.
We do not sell your information
You get the file and an email copy for later. That is it. No third-party sharing, ever.
Real local humans built this
Vicinity is a genuinely local IT provider with people in Alaska and Hawaii. We answer these questions the same way we would want a provider to answer them for us.
No sales theater
The checklist is a working tool, not a brochure. Use it whether or not we ever talk.