This list isn't made up. It comes from the Q&A round of a webinar by a fellow provider, attended by people on the verge of buying. That's more valuable material than a survey, because these are the questions someone asks with their hand already on their wallet.

We've grouped them into eight clusters and written down what a healthy answer contains for each one. Not what our answer is, because then it's a brochure. Where we've written the topic out in full elsewhere, the link is included.

At the bottom is the checklist in seven questions. If you only read that, you've read enough.

01 / ownershipWhat do I keep if we part ways?

Don't ask "will I own it", because you'll get a yes to that everywhere. Ask what you're left with upon cancellation. A healthy answer is: your accounts and all your data stay yours, the built layer either stops or you take it over. With almost every provider you'll get a mix, and the details determine everything.

Distrust setups where cancelling means losing your customer data, email history, or content. That's not a delivery, that's a hostage situation with a friendly bow on it. Also push on format: "you can export it" without saying what and in which format is not an answer.

Our own answer to this question, including where the dependency does sit with us, is in who owns it when it works.

02 / the modelWhich AI model runs underneath, and what if that changes?

A fair question that's rarely answered well. You want to know which model runs, who supplies that model, what happens if it becomes more expensive, and whether you have to start over if something better comes along next year.

What a good answer contains: the name of the supplier, whether those costs sit with you or with the builder, and whether the system is built so that a model swap is an adjustment rather than a rebuild. A provider who answers this with "we handle that" has dodged the question.

We don't have a publicly written-out answer to this yet. It's a fair question and it deserves a better piece than a paragraph in an overview; that's coming.

03 / the catchWhat's the downside that's not in the brochure?

The sharpest question from the entire webinar came from the audience: it sounds like a miracle machine, what's the downside? No substantive answer came back. That question deserves one though.

Three downsides you should hear about with any honest system. The first weeks are correction work: drafts feel off, summaries run too long, you invest attention before you get time back. AI makes mistakes, including confidently worded ones. And a system doesn't fix a weak offer: if your proposition isn't right, the rejection just arrives faster now.

Anyone who, when asked "what's the downside", only lists benefits hasn't understood the question.

A second question hangs off this one, and it's concretely testable: does the system send or publish anything without my approval? Our answer to that is in why we don't publish your posts automatically.

04 / too earlyI'm still in an early stage. Is this already for me?

Probably not, and that's the most honest answer there is. If your offer isn't fixed yet and you don't yet know exactly who your customer is, a system locks in something that's still moving. You get acceleration of unclarity.

The order is: first know what you're selling to whom, only then lock it in. A provider who tells you this even though it costs them a sale is telling you something about how they do business.

How to determine whether your situation is actually ready for it is in you don't have a business that's running yet.

05 / expandingDo I have to pay again for every expansion?

Demand that all prices, including those for expansions, are on paper in advance. What's included in the base, what does an extra component cost, and what exactly is the monthly fee for. Prices decided on the spot or only valid by email belong to a sales tactic, not to a supplier you want to work with for years.

Also ask what the monthly fee is for. There's a difference between rent and maintenance: with rent, your access stops when you stop paying; with maintenance, the upkeep stops. You only notice that difference the moment you want to leave, and that's exactly the moment you'd have wanted to know it.

Our own pricing model isn't fixed yet, so we won't quote amounts here. An overview that did quote prices that have never been set anywhere would be exactly the behaviour this section warns against.

06 / customer dataWhere does my customer data live, and who can access it?

This question deserves a more precise answer than "everything is encrypted". Three things you want in writing: where the data lives and who can access it (including the AI supplier), whether there's a data processing agreement, and what's arranged around the AI Act.

That last point is no longer a detail. Since February 2025 there's an obligation around AI literacy for anyone deploying AI, and from August 2026 transparency about AI-generated content is added to that. A provider who raises these topics themselves is further along than one who has to be asked.

We're still working out our own architecture on this point and will only publish about it once it's complete. What we can already say: ask for the list of parties that process your data, and ask whether that list exists on paper. A supplier who can't produce it doesn't have one.

07 / where to startThere's so much possible — where do I start?

With one workflow, not a plan. Pick the part you repeat most often and that requires the least judgement: your inbox, your call notes, your quotes. You can always expand; scaling back after too big a start feels like failure, and there's no need for that.

The question behind this question is usually a different one: what's the actual bottleneck in my business? That's where it starts, not with the tool. A provider who starts with a package choice instead of your week is selling tools.

Three examples of such a first workflow, each written out in full: your inbox as first AI employee, customer files that keep themselves up to date and let AI write your quotes.

08 / voiceWill it still sound like me, and what if I don't understand something?

You don't need to worry about the language; that's solved. Your voice is a different matter. Ask where the system gets its picture of your way of writing. If that comes from a four-field form, it becomes the average of everyone. If it comes from your own material and a conversation, there's something to work from.

On guidance: ask what happens when something breaks and who you talk to then. And pay attention to what's not promised. We, for instance, don't have a community, and we don't promise one either.

The full piece on this: language is easy, voice is the work.

09 / the checklistWhat questions should you ask any provider?

Seven questions, summarised from all eight clusters. Print them out, bring them to every conversation, and pay close attention to who answers calmly and who talks around it.

• What exactly do I keep if we stop — accounts, data, built work? And in which format?
• Where does my customer data live and is there a data processing agreement?
• What's arranged around the AI Act — literacy and transparency?
• Does the system send or publish anything without my approval?
• What do expansions cost, in writing, before I sign?
• What will disappoint in the first weeks, and how is that supported?
• What can the system explicitly not do?

A provider who answers all these questions calmly and concretely deserves the conversation. One who talks around them has already answered your question.

The best test isn't whether someone can do everything. It's whether they can name what they can't.

This text was produced with AI assistance and checked and approved by a human before publication.