Before approving an AI setup quote, check what is included

Ask for a result you can recognize

A useful quote explains what your team will receive, how you will check it and what is excluded. Start with the job, rather than a request for an impressive AI agent. UK government AI procurement guidance recommends describing the problem and required outcomes while remaining open to other solutions. That is useful buying guidance; it is not a Canadian legal requirement or proof that your project needs AI.

Voluntary buying principle adapted from government procurement guidance, checked October 10, 2026. The small-business scope comparison and worksheet are proposed examples. UK government: describe the problem and required outcomes

Compare the same job in both proposals

Consider two illustrative scopes for incoming service requests. Scope A provides one enquiry form and a summary template; staff copy approved details into the job list. Scope B also creates a proposed job record and puts missing details in a staff review queue. These deliver different amounts of work. Give each provider the same sample request and ask them to mark every step as included, manual or excluded. Do not compare headline prices as though both scopes remove the same workload.

Make a short completion checklist

For Scope B, write four proposed checks into the scope: a complete sample reaches the correct review queue; a request missing contact details waits for staff; submitting the same sample twice does not create two jobs; and an unavailable connection leaves a visible task with a manual next step. Name who tests each result and what evidence they receive. Agree which examples must pass before launch and how unresolved cases will be handled. These checks are a starting worksheet, not a claim that a system has passed them.

State what it may change

List the source records, connected tools and users included. Say whether the system drafts a record, saves it after approval or acts automatically. For this example, customer messages, prices and job dates still need the agreed staff approval. Ask how you can stop the workflow and who sees a failed task. A proposal saying only 'integrates with your CRM' leaves the actual fields, permissions and supported actions undecided.

Separate implementation from software costs

Ask for setup work, recurring support, third-party subscriptions and expected usage to be itemized. Microsoft Power Automate distinguishes standard, premium and custom connector entitlements; a connector's availability is not enough to establish that your current licence covers it. Have the provider check the proposed tools and account plans before you approve them. Agree who pays those providers and what happens if the chosen connection is unavailable. No new subscription should be assumed from a demonstration.

Supports the distinction between connector entitlements. Current costs and the exact implementation must be checked separately; no provider price is asserted here. Microsoft: Power Automate licence and connector entitlements

Agree the handover and delivery dependencies

Request a usable procedure, account ownership details, named support contact and a clear boundary between fixing agreed behaviour and adding new features. Confirm what support covers and when it ends. Ask which access, source records and owner decisions are needed before delivery can start. A focused setup can move quickly once those inputs are ready; a promised date should be tied to the actual scope and dependencies. Staff should know how to continue manually during an interruption.

Value the work that is actually removed

For illustration, fifteen requests at six minutes each use ninety minutes weekly. If the proposed workflow takes three minutes per request, plus one minute of approval per request and ten minutes of monitoring, it uses seventy minutes. That releases twenty minutes of capacity, not ninety. Add discovery, testing and training effort, implementation fees and recurring costs to your comparison. Use your own volume and correction time. The better choice is the scope that solves enough of your problem at an acceptable total cost.

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This guide applies across Canada. We provide remote AI consulting for businesses in Mississauga; it does not describe a local client or a staffed office.

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