Our AI Product & Supplier Evaluation Services help you navigate today’s fast-growing, complex ecosystem of AI/ML tools, platforms and solutions. If you don’t have all the skills you need in-house, we can also help you select a provider of AI development services.
We are independent of AI vendors, and take no payments for recommending products or services. We continually research the market to keep our knowledge up to date. We also find ourselves working alongside firms and with products, adding practical experience to our knowledge.
Our AI Product & Supplier Evaluation services covers three broad areas:
The scope of our AI Product & Supplier Evaluation work varies with the support you need:
AI Services Vendor Evaluation
We support evaluation of 3 types of AI/ML service, the ones commonly considered in an AI maturity journey:
The AI/ML skills market is complex and volatile, complicated further by inflated (or worse) claims of expertise. Pricing of services is also extremely varied. A familiar dilemmas is comparing large, established full-service IT firms (e.g. Infosys, CapGemini, Accenture, Wipro, DXC, TCS etc) with younger, smaller specialists (e.g. Filament, InData Labs, Jaywing, Strong)
We have experience and a wide network of relationships in this space. We also continually keeping up to date about new and existing AI/ML services firms.
We’re not in the Staff Augmentation business, so don’t usually find/place staff for a fee or commission. However, we’re happy to help out if you’re facing difficulties, often free of charge if it doesn’t need substantial time.
AI Business Solution & Platform Evaluation
In mainstream IT, many business problems no longer require bespoke software. Instead, packages or subscription services offer reliable, cost-effective alternatives. For example, accounting, customer relationship management, project management.
The AI/ML equivalent is not prevalent yet, but there is a growing set of pre-built business solutions that don’t require technical development. Many “traditional” software solutions are also starting to incorporate AI/ML features e.g. Salesforce, Microsoft Office
Before you embark on a project to develop an AI/ML solution, we can help you check if such alternatives exist, and are viable or even preferable.
If you decide to build your own AI/ML solutions, an increasingly popular option is the use of platforms instead of bespoke development. Their aim is to shift the emphasis of work towards data, interpretation & application – away from technical development. Much of what would otherwise be development work becomes configuration & selection.
Our AI Vendor Selection services can help you identify suitable platforms, and compare their merits with bespoke development.
AI/ML Technologies & Products
We use and understand today’s common AI/ML technologies, and stay up to date with emerging alternatives. As importantly, we are experienced in using such products together and in alongside legacy technology. This adds real-world knowledge of strengths, weaknesses and unexpected behaviours.
We can help you select a set of best-in-class products and tools to equip your AI/ML teams. Alternatively, if you want to stick to one main vendor e.g. AWS, Google, Microsoft, we can help you navigate their increasingly complex AI/ML product catalogues.
An important factor in AI/ML technology choices is integration and compatibility with existing IT. For example, the “best” data visualisation tool for your needs may be Tableau; but if you have a corporate data warehouse, you may already own an acceptable alternative.