Our marketing manager wants us to pay for an expensive AI-powered client onboarding platform, but I suspect it is just standard software with a trendy AI sticker slapped on it. What specific questions should our leadership team ask to separate real machine learning value from clever sales marketing?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Software vendors love to use artificial intelligence as a marketing buzzword to justify premium pricing. To protect your business from expensive tech theater, your leadership team must look past the sales pitch and focus on operational reality.

When a vendor claims their platform is AI-powered, ask them to explain the specific manual steps the system automates. If the software simply moves a task from step A to step B based on basic rules, it is standard automation, not machine learning. True AI should be analyzing unstructured data, identifying patterns, or generating custom outputs that previously required human thought.

Next, ask the vendor to demonstrate how their tool improves operational efficiency for a company of your size. If they cannot show a clear path to freeing your employees from low-value tasks, the tool is a distraction.

Never buy software because of the technology itself. Instead, prioritize use cases that solve the actual operational bottlenecks identified in your Level 10 Meeting™. If a tool does not directly support your V/TO® goals or help you build system-dependent operations, say no to the pitch.