Choosing an AI provider without getting fleeced: the 3 questions that make me uncomfortable too

A tradesperson shows me a quote he got elsewhere: a website, delivered in 24 hours, for €200, "thanks to AI." He asks me if it's a good deal. My answer cools him off: either it's a scam, or whoever wrote it has no idea of the real work behind a website, even one made with AI. Either way, don't sign.

The trouble with AI providers in 2026 is that anyone can sound competent for three minutes. The jargon is easy to recite, the demos look good. To sort them out, you don't need thirty six questions. There are three. And they make even me uncomfortable when a client asks me them, which is rather a good sign: an honest provider must be able to answer them without dodging.

"What happens the day it breaks down?"

That's the question that sorts everything out. A system that runs always ends up breaking one day: a tool updates, a page changes, a component fails. The serious provider tells you about that moment without your having to press: backups, alerts, who steps in, how fast. The other only talks about the dream, the "it runs itself, you've got nothing left to do." I've seen a simple maintenance job wipe out hours of work on an otherwise well built system. We recovered everything in a few minutes because there were backups from just before. That's the truth nobody sells you when they promise total autonomy: it breaks, and what matters is what's planned for that day. First scam, then: swearing a system will never need anyone.

"Will I be able to take this over without you?"

Second scam, more subtle: the black box. You're delivered something that works, but that you don't understand, can't modify, and that nobody else will be able to take over. The day you want to change provider, or just tweak a detail, you start from scratch. You haven't bought a tool, you've rented a dependency. So ask, in black and white, before signing: who owns what's produced? Can I get it back and hand it to someone else? If the answer stays vague, the answer is no. A good provider has no interest in holding you captive; they earn your loyalty through their work, not through your inability to leave.

The con artist talks to you about the dream. The good provider talks to you about the breakdowns.

"24 hours and €200, really?"

Third scam, the most visible: the magic price and deadline. A real website that sells, that loads fast, that's designed for your trade, is counted in days of work, not hours, and the price follows. AI has brought down the cost of production, it hasn't removed the thinking: who you're talking to, what you want them to feel, what should trigger a call. When someone sells you all that in 24 hours for the price of a shopping trip, they're delivering you a generic template filled in in a rush. You'll pay for it far more dearly in lost customers than whatever you thought you were saving.

Mind you, the opposite is true too, and I'd rather say so. A high price is no guarantee of seriousness. I've seen "bespoke AI projects" billed at several thousand euros where a mainstream subscription at twenty five euros a month did exactly the same job. The good provider is neither the cheapest nor the priciest: it's the one who tells you, sometimes against their own immediate interest, "you don't need me for that." An honest quote always has at least one line where you're saved some money.

These three questions make me uncomfortable too, I'll say it again, and that's on purpose. Because the honest answer is never "everything's perfect, nothing will break." It's "here's what can break, and here's how we handle it." A provider who promises you zero worries is lying to you, or lying to themselves. Me included, the day I'm tempted to sell you a dream to sign faster. If you want to see exactly which safeguards I'm talking about, they're detailed in the three tiers of AI in business. And if you want to know how I answer these three questions myself, that's over here.