A vendor demonstration can show whether an AI tool is interesting. It cannot answer every question about how that tool will operate inside your company.
Before buying, I would define the proposed use and review the specific service against it. The review should follow the deployment you intend to purchase, rather than assume that a statement about one account type covers every version of the product.
This matters for a standalone assistant and for an AI feature added to software you already use.
Begin with the business task
Describe what the tool will do, who will use it, what information it will receive and whether it can take actions.
A meeting assistant that summarizes public webinars has a different operating context from one that records confidential customer negotiations. Even if the software is the same, the review questions should reflect the activity.
Ask the vendor to respond to that description. A general trust page can supply useful background, but it may not resolve questions about your configuration.
Ask how information moves through the service
Request a clear explanation of what the provider receives, where it is processed, how long relevant data is retained and who can access it.
Check whether other providers process the information. Ask about prompts, uploaded files, retrieved information, outputs, logs and any feedback employees submit.
Clarify the terms governing model training and improvement for the proposed service and agreement. Avoid assuming that “enterprise” or a setting labelled “private” answers every part of the data-handling question.
Have the relevant specialists review the response and its supporting terms. Keep unanswered points visible.
Check connections and action permissions
Which systems can the tool connect to? What permissions does it request? Can your administrators limit access by role or use case?
Ask whether the tool can send messages, publish content, run code or change records. If these actions can be restricted, obtain documentation for how the restrictions work and decide who will configure and verify them.
Do not treat read access and action authority as interchangeable. Both deserve examination, but they create different operating questions.
Match performance evidence to your task
Ask what evaluation has been performed, what conditions it covered and what limitations were identified.
A strong result for general text summarization may not tell you how the service handles your customer terminology, document types or exceptional cases. Design a trial with appropriate specialist involvement and data that your organization has approved for that purpose.
NIST's MEASURE 2.3 addresses evaluating performance in conditions resembling deployment. Source: NIST Playbook, Measure.
Document what the trial establishes and what remains unknown. A trial should have acceptance criteria before the team sees the results.
Work through a change after purchase
Illustrative scenario: A consultancy approves a meeting assistant for internal project calls. It later wants to use the assistant in customer interviews, and the provider adds another processing partner.
The original review may no longer cover the activity. The team needs to revisit the information involved, the applicable agreement, participant communication and the changed processing arrangement.
Ask vendors how they notify customers about material service, model, feature or processing changes. Assign an internal owner who will receive those notifications and decide whether another review is needed.
The change route is worth establishing before the service becomes part of everyday work.
Ask about problems and an exit
How do you report unexpected behaviour or a possible data incident? What support commitments apply to your agreement? What records are available for investigation?
Also consider continuity. Can the team perform the task another way if the service is unavailable or its use needs to pause? What can be exported, and what happens to retained information when the relationship ends?
These are questions to resolve with technical, procurement, privacy and legal owners as appropriate. A document review should not be presented as a guarantee that the service will perform safely in every situation.
Record the approval conditions
A useful purchase decision might specify the approved account, permitted task, access boundaries, required human review, open questions and review triggers.
NIST's GOVERN 6 addresses risks involving third-party AI software and data. Source: NIST Playbook, Govern.
The practical result I would seek is a purchasing decision the team can explain, with conditions that the people using the service can follow.
Download the readiness check, or explore the AI Governance Readiness Assessment.