How to choose an AI agency

Almost every AI agency shows you the same demo. The difference is not what happens on screen, it is what still runs six months later. 95% of AI pilots deliver no measurable ROI (MIT NANDA, The GenAI Divide, 2025). This page gives you the questions that expose that difference, before you sign.

Seven questions to ask any AI agency

Ask them in the first conversation, not after the quote. The answer you are looking for sits next to each one.

1. Which project did you advise against?: You want a concrete example with a reason. Anyone without an answer has never said no, and will not say it to you either.
2. Who will actually be in the code?: You want a name who is also at the table. At many agencies a senior sells and a junior builds. Ask who picks up the first ticket.
3. Is the price fixed up front?: You want an amount and an end date in writing. An hourly rate with no ceiling moves the entire risk to you.
4. Who maintains this once you are gone?: You want a name inside your own organisation, plus the agreement that this person is trained alongside. Otherwise you are buying a dependency, not a system.
5. How is the result measured?: You want one number agreed up front: hours, lead time, error rate. "More efficiency" is not a measurement.
6. What happens to our data?: You want a concrete answer about where the model runs, what is retained, and what the EU AI Act means for your use case. Not "that is secure".
7. What is likely to go wrong?: You want two or three real risks. An agency that only sees opportunities has either not understood your problem or is not telling you everything.

Three kinds of AI agency, and when each fits

They all call themselves an AI agency, but there are three different businesses behind the label. None of them is wrong. They just fit different questions.

The marketing or digital agency that added AI: Strong on content, campaigns and customer experience. Fits when your question is a marketing question. Fits less when the answer has to land in your ERP or your operation.
The software studio: Strong at building. Fits when you already know what needs to exist and you are short on capacity. Fits less when the open question is still which problem you are solving.
The consulting firm: Strong on analysis, buy-in and governance. Fits large organisations with a political playing field. Fits less when you want something working within a quarter: an implementation party usually follows.
What you are usually after: A party that both chooses and builds. Choosing without building becomes a report. Building without choosing becomes a pilot nobody uses.

Our own answer to question one

Anyone who asks that question should answer it themselves. Ours is in the bio on the homepage, in the first person and with the amount attached: a GenAI product where the advice was to wait, and where building continued anyway.

What we kept from it sits in how we work now. A no goes on paper, with the reason attached, before a single euro goes into building. Advice you can overrule without writing it down was never advice.

When we are not the right fit

We are a small senior collective from Rotterdam. That makes us wrong for a number of questions, and we would rather say so now than in week three.

If you need a team of ten supplying capacity for a year, a software house serves you better. If you want a brand campaign with AI in it, a creative agency does. If you are in a process where the answer is already fixed and only needs confirming, we will not make you happy.

We fit when you have already started with AI, it is stuck at the demo, and you want someone who first says what to stop and then builds what remains.

Frequently asked

What should you look for when choosing an AI agency?

Four things: who actually builds, whether price and end date are fixed up front, who maintains the system once the agency is gone, and which project they once advised against. The demo says almost nothing, because every party shows the same demo. What still runs six months later says everything.

What does an AI agency cost in the Netherlands?

Our scan of your existing AI plans costs from €1,995 ex VAT for about a week. What other agencies charge we do not know, so we are not going to invent that figure. Compare on fixed price per result rather than hourly rate, because an hourly rate with no ceiling puts the risk on you.

Large consulting firm or small AI agency?

You buy a large consulting firm for analysis, buy-in and governance in a politically complex organisation. You buy a small agency because the people you talk to also do the work. Choose large when the decision is the problem. Choose small when execution is the problem.

Does an AI agency need to be nearby?

For the analysis work, no: that runs fine remotely. For working sessions, yes. Three hours in a room with the people who actually do the work beats ten videocalls. So look for a party willing to come to you, not necessarily one around the corner. We work from Rotterdam across the Netherlands.

And if your conclusion is: do not build this?

Then that is the deliverable, and you pay for it. And it goes further: if our verdict is do not build, we will not build it either. Not for you, not if you insist. If another party is better suited, we say which one. That costs us the engagement, and that is exactly the point. Every yes we do give, we have to deliver ourselves, at a fixed price in four weeks. That is what makes our no worth something.

How do you tell whether an AI agency really builds?

Ask for something live that they built themselves, not a client case in a slide. Ask who maintains it. Ask what broke and how it was fixed. An agency that builds gives answers with detail in them; an agency that resells stays on process. What we built is at Signal Match and Business Boosters.

The honest takeaway

There is no best AI agency, only one that fits what you need now. Ask three parties the seven questions and you will hear the difference immediately. Anyone without a concrete answer to question one and question seven drops out.

Ask us the other six

Question one is answered above. The other six we would rather answer with your project attached than in the abstract. Book a working session, or start with a one-week Scan.