Gartner Research

Questions to Ask Vendors That Say They Have 'Artificial Intelligence'

Published: 07 August 2017

Summary

More than 1,000 vendors with applications and platforms describe themselves as AI vendors, or say they employ AI in their products. Application leaders can ask questions to elicit what is AI and what isn't, and what differentiating value is present in either case.

Included in Full Research

  • Key Challenges
  • Ask the Vendor to Define AI and ML, and Then to Demonstrate How the Product Uses AI
  • Require the Vendor to Describe How the Product Improves in Outcomes, Including the Documentation of Likely Human Services, and a Frank Evaluation of the Time Necessary for Adding Code or Configuration, or Having to Maintain Models
  • Try to See How AI Makes the Vendor's Product Superior to Others (Extra Credit: Show How Its AI Works Better Than Other Vendors' AI)
  • Inquire What Learning Techniques the Vendor Is Exploring to Enhance the Product (Extra Credit: Determine How to Match Functionality to End Users' Expectations, Including Any Incorporation of Their Results Into the System)
  • Discover What Resources Are Available to Gather Data That the AI Can Work On to Improve Its Outcomes (Extra Credit: Determine How to Adjust for Opacity and Bias in the Dataset)

Analysts:

Whit Andrews,  Jim Hare

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