Vendor offers
Four vendors offer AI in systems a company already uses. Operient ranks the workflows each offer would change, so the company can see which offer fits best.
The company and all figures are fictional, for illustration.
The situation
A telecom company with 600 employees receives four AI offers in the same quarter, each from a vendor whose system it already uses. Each vendor presents its offer as a priority. The leadership team wants to know which offers are worth buying, in what order, and on what evidence.
What Operient assessed
Each offer was linked to the workflow it would change. Operient then scored each workflow on value, how well it suits AI, and governance requirements, using the company’s own data: monthly volumes, time spent, exception rates and the rules that apply.
The recommendation
| Vendor offer | Workflow | Score | Recommendation | Why | First step |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ITSM vendor: AI agent that categorises and routes service requests | Categorise and route service requests | 78 | Invest now | 4,200 requests a month, clear rules and low risk. Errors are easy to correct | Switch on for internal IT requests first and check accuracy after four weeks |
| ERP vendor: AI matching of supplier invoices | Match supplier invoices to orders | 68 | Governed pilot | High volume, but 15% of invoices are exceptions and financial controls apply | Pilot in one business unit, with a person approving every exception |
| Office-suite vendor: AI assistant licences for all 600 staff | No single workflow named | 44 | Defer | The cost per seat is fixed, and the value depends on use nobody has defined | Ask the vendor which workflows it improves, or test with one team |
| Customer-service platform vendor: chatbot that resolves billing disputes | Resolve customer billing disputes | 12 | Keep human-led | Complaints, consumer rules and vulnerable customers. A wrong answer costs trust | Keep with people and look again in 12 months |
What the company decided
Operient recommends; the company decides. Here, the leadership team bought the first offer, ran the second as a pilot, and told the other two vendors what it would need to see. Each decision is recorded with its rationale and the version of the method used, so it can be reviewed when the offers or the rules change.
Do you have AI offers from your vendors on the table?
Start with a first assessment of one process area.