Questions 13–15: Can you buy and evaluate it responsibly?

13. Do you understand the full cost rather than the headline subscription?

• A — 0: We only know the advertised monthly price.
• B — 1: We know setup and subscription charges, but usage, integrations or internal work remain unclear.
• C — 2: We have an itemised first-year model covering implementation, usage, licences, support, supervision, rework and exit costs.
• D — 3: We have also tested low, expected and peak usage, agreed alerts and spending controls, and distinguished cash savings from released staff capacity.

Evidence to collect: A written charge schedule and a model showing assumptions, VAT treatment, minimum terms and exclusions.

Our costing checklist: Include telephone numbers and diversion, call minutes, messages, model or platform usage, API access, recording storage, integration maintenance, change requests, staff training, monitoring and termination assistance wherever applicable. “Not specified” means unknown—not free.

14. Can the supplier prove delivery and leave you with a workable exit?

• A — 0: We have promises, but no usable scope, ownership or exit terms.
• B — 1: There is a proposal or case study, but responsibilities and portability remain unclear.
• C — 2: Written terms cover deliverables, acceptance, support, changes, account control, data access, termination and handover; we have reviewed relevant delivery evidence.
• D — 3: We have checked a comparable reference or witnessed relevant workflow evidence, tested an export or handover sample, and confirmed how the business continues if the agency relationship ends.

Evidence to collect: A scope and responsibility matrix, acceptance schedule, support escalation route and exit checklist. Identify any vendor restrictions that limit portability rather than accepting a blanket promise of ownership.

Where a supplier is acting as your processor, ICO guidance requires contractual provisions including instructions, security, subprocessors, assistance and end-of-contract handling. The processor contract’s return-or-deletion provisions are not a substitute for separately agreeing commercial continuity and usable exports. (ico.org.uk)

15. Have you agreed what will make the pilot continue, change or stop?

• A — 0: Success means the AI is switched on or sounds convincing.
• B — 1: We have a broad target, such as answering more calls, without a comparison method or stop rules.
• C — 2: We have a bounded pilot, budget cap, baseline, outcome metrics, review owner and written acceptance criteria.
• D — 3: We also have a defensible comparison method, sufficient time to observe relevant outcomes, error and complaint monitoring, version tracking and explicit continue/change/stop decisions.

Evidence to collect: A pilot charter signed off by the budget holder and workflow owner.

Buyer recommendation: A booking is not a completed job, and a drafted message is not time saved. Specify how the pilot will follow work through to completion and count the supervision and correction it creates.