Consulting Practice
Ask about client-data reuse
A provider’s marketing says data is protected but does not answer training, retention, or deletion questions.
Procurement
Free Canadian small business workbook
AI Procurement Question Bank
A worksheet for asking vendors better questions about embedded AI, data posture, auditability, and exit rights.
7 pages · PDF workbook · No email required
Preview the complete PDF All 7 pages · Free to explore
Scroll through the full workbook below. Download the PDF for selectable text, printing and your own working copy.
What’s inside
A working guide
for a real decision.
Prepare procurement questions across model providers, retention, training use, logs, deletion, residency, subcontractors, evaluation, fallback, and export rights. Use this guide to make the operating choice explicit, test it with evidence, and record who owns the next decision.
Who this is for
SMBs buying SaaS tools with embedded AI.
Bring the people who own the work
Include the workflow owner, a person who performs the work, a reviewer with authority to approve or stop it, and the relevant data or tool owner.
Includes an explainer, working worksheet, three illustrative examples and practical considerations. This is a planning PDF, not prebuilt automation software.
Use it with your own work
Five questions
to work through.
Choose one workflow. Record enough context to support a decision, then use the worksheet to name the owner, evidence and next review.
Data handling
What data is stored, retained, trained on, deleted, or shared?
Model provider
Which models or providers power the feature?
Auditability
What logs, traces, review records, and exports are available?
Governance
Can permissions, human review, and fallback be configured?
Exit
Can data, prompts, logs, and workflows be exported or deleted?
Illustrative examples from the workbook
Where this becomes practical.
Independent Retailer
Ask about POS integration
A platform claims seamless integration without describing permissions, outages, or export.
Accounting Practice
Ask about audit and residency
A buyer needs precise answers on access logs, subcontractors, storage, and exit terms.
- AI-supported role
- Draft a requirement-linked question list and organize vendor responses with cited evidence and gaps.
- Human authority
- Procurement, privacy, and business owners challenge claims and approve contract or rejection.
- What to measure
- Track unanswered material questions, verified controls, exit rights, and total cost.
Illustrative scenarios, not client results or a promise of performance. The workbook includes additional case-specific prompts.
A useful first step
Use the workbook.
Bring us the next question.
Download and use it without booking a call. If you want help applying it, email Chris with the workflow you’re considering and what you want to improve.
Discuss your workflowFurther reading in the library
General operational guidance only. These resources are not legal, privacy, cybersecurity or regulatory advice.