What to ask an AI provider before hiring them
With the EU AI Act in force, you are entitled to clear answers. Eight questions that separate a serious provider from one who is improvising.
The market has filled with tools promising to look after your clients with artificial intelligence. Some are very well built; others are an old-school chatbot with a new label. Now that the EU AI Act is in application, you have a good reason to demand clear answers: the law expects whoever builds these tools to be able to explain them.
These are the questions I would ask before signing anything.
1. What exactly does it do, and what does it not do?
The answer should be concrete and, above all, include the limits. A provider who only tells you about virtues and never says “it does not do this” is selling, not explaining. Limits are quality information.
2. Does the client know they are talking to an AI?
They should. The regulation requires the person to be informed that they are interacting with an AI system. On top of that, transparency builds more trust than covering it up: what bothers people is not talking to an AI, it is finding out halfway through the conversation.
3. How does it hand over to a person?
There has to be a clear human exit, easy to ask for and one that genuinely works. Ask how your team is alerted, what context they receive and whether the client has to repeat everything.
4. Where is the data processed and stored?
A direct question, a direct answer. If you work with client data in Europe, knowing where that data ends up is not a technical detail.
5. Can I pause it whenever I want?
You must be able to switch it off or take over a conversation at any time, without calling support or waiting. It is the most basic form of human oversight.
6. What gets recorded?
Being able to check what was said to each client serves three purposes: resolving misunderstandings, providing continuity and knowing what the tool is doing on your behalf.
7. Does it book against my real schedule?
That is the difference between a useful tool and a problem generator. If it does not check your real availability, it will end up giving out slots that do not exist.
8. Who do I talk to when something goes wrong?
There should be reachable people behind it. In a business that depends on its schedule, support is not an extra.
The answer you should hear
If you get evasive answers to half of these questions, you already have your answer. A provider who has taken seriously what they build answers all of them without getting nervous, because they are exactly the questions they asked themselves before building it.
In our case, you can see what ClaudIA does and does not do, and also how the law splits responsibilities between whoever builds and whoever uses the tool — the bulk falls on the provider, not on your salon.
Buying well is not about understanding technology. It is about asking good questions and listening to how they are answered.