The short answer
Before hiring an AI development company, ask how they will test on your own data, how the system connects to the software you already run, where your data is processed, who owns what is built, and who supports it after launch. Clear answers to those five tell you most of what you need to know.
- Testing on your data comes before any promise of accuracy
- Integration is where most of the effort goes
- Ownership and support belong in the contract
- A human review step should be designed in, not added later
The ten questions
Take this list into the meeting.
- What exactly will be delivered, and how will we know it works?
- Will you test on our own documents and data before we commit to the full build?
- How will the system connect to our ERP, CRM, document store or WhatsApp line?
- Where will our data be processed, and can it stay in the UAE or on our own servers?
- Which models will you use, and why those?
- Where does a person review the output before it is acted on?
- How is access controlled, and is every action logged?
- Who owns the code, the configuration and the data when the project ends?
- Who maintains the system after launch, and what happens when a model is updated?
- Who trains our staff?
What good answers sound like
Good answers are specific. "We will run two hundred of your invoices through it and show you the misses" is a good answer. "Our AI is highly accurate" is not. A good provider is also comfortable saying "we do not know yet, that is what the first phase is for".
Development alone is not enough
A system that works technically can still fail if nobody decided which process it should change, or if staff were not shown how to use it. That is why we keep consulting and development in one team: the plan, the build and the training are parts of the same job.