How to choose an AI agency

Seven questions to ask any AI agency

Ask them in the first conversation, before there is a quote. Next to each question is what a good answer sounds like.

1. Which project did you advise against?

A good answer is a concrete example with a reason. An agency that has never said no will not say it to you either.

2. Who will write the code?

You want a name, and that person also sits in the meetings. 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 puts the entire risk on you.

4. Who maintains this once you are gone?

You want a name inside your own organisation, plus the agreement that this person builds alongside. Otherwise you are buying a dependency.

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 to know where the model runs, what is retained and what the EU AI Act means for your use case. "That is secure" is not an answer.

7. What is likely to go wrong?

You want two or three risks that are about your situation. An agency that only names opportunities has not understood your problem or is holding something back.

Three kinds of AI agency, and when each fits

Three kinds of business sit behind the AI agency label. Each fits a different question.

The marketing or digital agency that added AI

Strong on content, campaigns and customer experience. Choose this type when your question is about marketing, and another when the answer has to land in your ERP or your operation.

The software studio

Strong at building. Choose this type when you already know what needs to exist and mainly lack capacity. If you are still working out which problem to solve, it is too early.

The consulting firm

Strong on analysis, buy-in and governance, often in large organisations with many stakeholders. If you want something working within a quarter, expect a second party to build it.

An AI agency that chooses and builds

What you are usually after: a party that first chooses which use case deserves production and then builds it too. Choosing without building produces a report, building without choosing a pilot nobody uses.

My own answer to question one

Anyone who asks that question should answer it too. I once advised waiting with a GenAI product; building continued anyway.

Since then, a no from me goes on paper, with the reason attached, before a single euro goes into building. Advice that nobody writes down, anybody can overrule.

When I am not the right fit

I work alone, from Rotterdam, with your team. That makes me the wrong party for a number of questions.

If you need a team of ten supplying capacity for a year, choose a software house. If you want a brand campaign with AI in it, choose a creative agency. And if the answer is already fixed and you only want confirmation, I will not make you happy.

I 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.