Ask What Problem It Solves. Then Ask Again.

When a vendor demos an AI tool for your business, ask what problem it solves. They'll answer smoothly — they've practiced. Then ask again: "No, specifically — what problem of mine does it solve?"

The first answer is marketing. The second answer is where the truth lives. If they can name your actual headache — "your team spends six hours a week retyping order details" — keep listening. If they drift back to vague promises about transformation and synergy, you're being sold a dream, not a tool.

This is the same instinct I used writing business requirements: keep asking until the answer is concrete enough to test. A requirement you can't test is a wish. A tool whose value you can't measure is a hobby.

Three questions that cut through any demo:

• What specific task gets faster, and by how much?
• What could go wrong, and who fixes it?
• What does it cost when we stop using it?

If the vendor answers all three plainly, you might have something. If they can't, you just saved yourself a subscription and a headache.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.