Question 1

How do we verify use case fit?

Accepted Answer

Ask for recent, similar projects, demos, and client references. Require documented KPIs, datasets, and constraints that match yours. Prefer partners with industry depth and production wins, not just labs or prototypes.

Question 2

What evaluation discipline should we require?

Accepted Answer

Demand an evaluation set, clear metrics, acceptance thresholds, red-teaming, and reproducible reports. Ask for sample eval outputs and how failures lead to fixes. Tie promotion gates to metric targets.

Question 3

What security and compliance proof matters?

Accepted Answer

Request SOC 2 or ISO evidence, a DPA, data flow diagrams, access controls, encryption, audit logs, and incident response. Confirm data residency, retention, deletion SLAs, and who can access production data.

Question 4

How do we protect ownership and portability?

Accepted Answer

Write into the SOW that you own code, models, prompts, datasets, evaluation sets, and documentation. Require repo access, infra as code, model cards, and a handover package with runbooks and training.

Question 5

How can we avoid vendor lock-in?

Accepted Answer

Favor open formats, containerized services, standard vector stores, and BYO cloud. Require VPC deployment options, export tools, and a tested migration plan. Ban exclusive dependencies unless justified with benefits.

Question 6

What delivery speed should we expect?

Accepted Answer

Ask for a plan with milestones. Discovery and PoC 2 to 3 weeks, pilot 4 to 8 weeks, production hardening 4 to 12 weeks. Require weekly status reports and a single accountable owner.

Question 7

How do we compare the total cost?

Accepted Answer

Request a TCO model that separates build and run. Include infra, LLM usage, evals, guardrails, monitoring, support, and retraining. Set spend alerts, rate limits, and latency SLOs. Compare fixed, milestone, and outcome pricing.

Question 8

How do we validate value before committing?

Accepted Answer

Run a small PoC on real data with business KPIs, baselines, and success thresholds. Measure task completion, quality, and latency. Use a go or no-go decision and document lessons for a pilot.

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