The AI vendor market is loud, and demos are designed to impress. Evaluating vendors well means cutting through the pitch to the criteria that actually determine whether you’ll get value — and protecting yourself from lock-in and overstated claims. Here’s how, and how dgm fits. (dgm implements osFoundry, a separate company’s platform — we are not osFoundry.)

The criteria that matter

  • Model and vendor flexibility. Can you use your own models and switch later, or are you locked to one lab or cloud? (See bring your own model.)
  • Data control. Where does your data go, and is it used to train the vendor’s models? Get this in writing.
  • Transparent pricing. Is the all-in cost clear, or hidden behind a sales process? Per-seat models can balloon (see how much AI consulting costs).
  • Integration fit. Does it connect to the systems and workflows you actually run?
  • Security and compliance. Does its posture meet your requirements (and any regulatory ones)?
  • Honest claims. Does it acknowledge limits, or promise AI can do everything?

The red flags

  • Lock-in to one model or cloud.
  • Opaque or ballooning pricing.
  • AI washing — overstated capabilities (a real enough problem that the SEC has pursued it).
  • Vague data answers.
  • Pressure to commit before a real evaluation.

Match to your use case, not the demo

The most impressive demo isn’t the best fit — the best fit is the vendor that solves your real use case within your workflows and constraints. Start from your need (see how to scope an AI project), then evaluate against it.

Test before you commit

Claims are easy; results aren’t. Run a small, real pilot on your actual use case and data before committing budget — it reveals integration, accuracy, and fit under real conditions (see how to run a successful AI pilot). This is when problems are cheapest to find.

How dgm fits

dgm is an independent integration partner, not a single-model vendor — it implements the model-agnostic osFoundry platform with transparent pricing and data control, and its $399 assessment can help you evaluate options against your real workflows. If you’d rather explore the platform yourself first, go straight to osFoundry; if you want help evaluating and then implementing, that’s where dgm comes in.