What to know before buying an AI tool

An owner hesitating over an AI subscription has often already seen the demo. The tool drafts, sorts, summarises. The question that remains is elsewhere: does it hold in this company, on this work, with these people?

I do not start with the tool. The assessment describes real work before any tool decision. It can start from a question of organisation or of how tools are used, with or without an AI project. It takes place in Réunion, in mainland France and remotely. Remotely, conversations are set to Paris time. On-site days are decided at the first conversation.

The questions, before the software

The first conversation is not an automatic quote. You describe the situation: the work involved, the people, what is stuck. A format is chosen. The scope is written before work starts: duration, access, deliverables, price.

Four questions come back, because they are the ones that decide whether a tool has a place.

Which work. Not the job title: what the work really requires. At scoping, the scope holds to one to three processes. In a scoping note taken from an engagement, anonymised, the scope was the documents produced for each job, and the invoice path.

Who does it. Management, the people on the ground, administrative support. The names and the dates are written in the scoping note. Without that, you are talking about a process, not about work.

Where it sticks. In the field, I look at what weighs: rework, double entry, waiting. In the same anonymised engagement, each file started from a similar job, edited by hand. The documents were uneven. The reviews were long.

What evidence. Where AI is already used, and how. In that engagement, it was already in use, each person on their own, with no shared frame. Another tool, set on top of that, does not create the frame.

I have written elsewhere about why starting from the visible task often misses the work: You do not remove a task. You move the real work.

Four steps

The assessment holds to four steps. A fifth, implementation, exists. It is not part of the assessment. It is decided afterwards, if you choose it.

Scoping is done with management. The questions are written. The scope is set: one to three processes. The people to meet are named, and so are the dates. The scoping note carries these four elements.

Fieldwork is individual interviews and observation of the work at the workstation, with a reading of the working documents. What the work really requires. What weighs. Where AI is already used, and how.

Individual validation comes next. Each person reads the analysis of their own work. They correct, add or remove. We go back and forth until they approve it. Nothing is shared without their approval. In the anonymised engagement, the individual report had a first version, corrections (spell out the invoice path, remove a passage), then a second version approved by the person.

The debrief is collective, with a workshop and the team. The report follows: concrete use cases, prioritised by what they bring to the work and by how feasible they are, and a roadmap. The tools and the rules of use are in it. The horizon is written in three spans: 0 to 3 months, 3 to 9 months, beyond. In the anonymised engagement, the first three months carried a shared work account, shared templates and a charter of use. The following months carried a workshop to review offers and reference files. Beyond that, an agent pilot on email.

The duration, the price, what you receive

The assessment quote covers steps 1 to 4. It is drawn up by the size of the organisation and the scope. Usually that is 3 to 5 days, i.e. €4,500 to €7,500 excl. VAT. The price is stated before work starts. VAT is extra, at the rate applicable where the client is established (8.5% in Réunion).

At the end, you have three pieces. A scoping note: management’s questions, the scope, the people, the dates. Validated findings: each person has read the analysis of their own work and approved it. A roadmap: the prioritised use cases, the tools, the rules of use, across 0 to 3 months, 3 to 9 months, and beyond.

Implementation is not in that quote. It is one roadmap workstream at a time, after the debrief, if you decide so. It is done by the day, €1,500 excl. VAT; half-days are available. The pace is decided after the debrief. Each workstream follows the effects on working conditions. Each month we decide: continue, adjust or stop.

Hélène, project lead at Territoire de l’Ouest, wrote after an ergonomic assessment: “The assessment is very clear and concise, and it brings out the scale of the challenge ahead.”

Diane, of TC Expertise, also Ergonomia’s accountant, wrote: “Thank you very much for this report, ‘as clear as can be’! It’s an excellent way to look ahead and see our next actions.”

When the next step is not to start

What comes out of the assessment is there to choose the next step, or to leave it.

That is not a cautionary line. The roadmap can conclude that a tool has no place now: the work is not described, the people do not recognise the findings, feasibility is not there. In that case, the decision is not to start. The quote stops at the four steps. Nothing starts after that, until you decide so.

The assessment for an SME is on this page. From Réunion, the same work is on this one. The four steps are on the consulting page.