AI systems /
The best AI vendor will change. Keep the workflow
The easiest AI purchase to approve is the long contract with one vendor.
One platform, one account manager, one bill. It looks efficient.
Then a better model arrives. Or a smaller tool handles a useful part of the job more cheaply. The market is moving quickly enough that a sensible choice today can be the wrong one next year.
The problem is not that the company chose a vendor. The problem is when the vendor becomes the only place the company understands the work.
Use vendors. Keep the important parts movable.
Most companies should buy rather than build. There is little value in recreating a model provider, a vector database or an automation platform.
The valuable part is the workflow around the tool. It contains the business knowledge, the approval points and the definition of a good outcome.
Keep those things outside one vendor's product:
- Knowledge: policies, product facts, examples and exceptions need a source the business controls.
- Evals: keep real examples of good and bad outputs. They let you compare a new model or supplier properly.
- Workflow: document the handoffs, rules and human approvals somewhere people can read without opening an automation canvas.
- Evidence: retain logs, citations, review notes and overrides. They show how the system behaves and where it fails.
You do not need a perfect abstraction layer. That often adds cost without solving a real problem. You need enough separation to replace a part of the system without rebuilding the whole thing.
Decide where lock-in is acceptable
Lock-in is reasonable for a peripheral workflow, a short project or a tool that is easy to replace.
It is far more expensive when the system holds company knowledge, makes customer promises or influences operational decisions. Those systems need clear ownership, approval boundaries and an exit path.
Before signing a deal, ask four questions:
- If a better model appears in six months, what would it take to move this workflow?
- Can we export the knowledge, prompts, evals and operating history?
- Which parts exist only in the vendor's interface?
- Who inside the company can explain how this system makes decisions?
The discount on a multi-year deal is easy to calculate. The cost of missing the next improvement is not.
The rule
Use the best AI tools available.
Keep the workflow, knowledge, evals and evidence trail in a form the company can carry elsewhere.