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Dev.to
Dev.to
7/31/2026
How to Evaluate an AI Agent Vendor Before You Sign

How to Evaluate an AI Agent Vendor Before You Sign

Short summary

A practical 12-question checklist for evaluating AI agent vendors before signing, emphasizing failure handling over polished demos. Key areas cover agent-vs-workflow justification, cost scaling, data security, code ownership, and rollback planning. The author recommends comparing three proposals and favoring vendors who explain trade-offs over those with slick decks.

  • Score vendors on failure handling, not demo polish
  • 12 questions spanning scope, cost, security, ownership, and rollback
  • Compare three proposals; prefer vendors who say 'it depends' with reasoning

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