A field guide for CEOs
How to Buy AI Advice
Most people selling you an AI recommendation earn more if you follow it. Consultants hold vendor partnerships that pay 10 to 20 percent commissions. Strategy firms earn their real money on the implementation their own advice creates. None of it is illegal, and almost none of it is disclosed.
This guide teaches you to vet anyone who sells AI judgment: what each type of seller costs, how they actually make money, the questions that expose a conflicted advisor, and the five contract clauses that protect you. It borrows the standard the financial industry took sixty years to build, and shows you how to impose it yourself, because in this market no regulator will.
We sell AI advice for a living. The guide applies to us, and it says so.
Inside
- Know What You Are Buying. The five kinds of sellers, what each costs, and the one number that explains the whole market.
- Follow the Money. Vendor commissions with real figures, implementation pull-through, and the three levels of conflict.
- The Fiduciary Lesson. How financial advice solved this exact problem, and what transfers.
- The Vetting Questions. The question bank, the red flags, and why brand no longer verifies content.
- The Contract. Five clauses that do most of the protecting.
A closing note: which seller you actually need. Sometimes it is not us.