Top questions to ask AI agent vendors before you sign
A practical vendor questionnaire for AI agent agencies and freelancers: gates, data, failure modes, ownership, and pilot design.
Written by Northstar
Northstar is an AI agent systems studio. Alex leads engineering and product systems; Jordan leads operations and workflow fit. We ship production agents inside tools teams already use.
Alex Morgan · LinkedIn · Northstar
Direct answer
Before you sign, ask vendors how agents fail, what requires human approval, how data is accessed, and how ownership transfers. Skip vendors who only demo happy paths.
Process and scope questions
Which workflow is in the first pilot? What is explicitly out of scope? How do you handle non-standard cases?
Safety and control
Where are human gates? What is the stop-switch? How are secrets stored? Can the agent send money, email, or change permissions?
Evidence and ops
How do you evaluate quality? What is logged? Who is on-call after launch? What does the handoff package include?
Commercial
Fixed price or open-ended? What changes the price? Who owns the code and prompts?
How Northstar fits
Northstar publishes process notes on gates and pilots. Start with an audit.
FAQ
Prefer staged access with least privilege and a written data policy.