What Questions Should I Ask My SaaS Vendors About AI?

Ben Pippenger: AI, it's everywhere from using assistance in your personal life to getting meeting summaries and action items from a co- pilot. I think we can all agree that AI has an increasing impact on our lives. In fact, Zylo's 2024 SaaS Management Index shows employees have a growing appetite to use AI with AI tools making our list of most- expensed applications for the very first time. I'd also bet that nearly every one of your SaaS vendors has an AI strategy and that you get calls from new ones on the regular. How do you break through the noise? What new AI- powered technology is really worth your time to learn more about? It all comes down to having a conversation with your vendors and asking the right questions.

Ben Pippenger: And today's episode we'll cover five table- stake questions you need to ask any SaaS vendor trying to sell you an AI- powered solution. Before I get going here, I do need to give a big shout- out to Leagh Turner, the CEO of Coupa for inspiring this episode where she shared similar thoughts at their recent Inspire Conference.

Ben Pippenger: All right, let's jump in. First question to ask, is the data in the public domain or is it proprietary? Another way to think about this is, does the vendor have a unique set of data that could unlock value for you and your business that isn't easy or possible to get to otherwise? If they are pulling publicly available information or scraping data from the web into their model, how much true value is there? Consider whether you'd be willing to pay for that.

Ben Pippenger: Second, how much data do you have? Dig in with the vendor on the makeup of the data. What types of organizations or sources are powering their AI? Are there similarities in those sources with your own organization? For instance, if you are a traditional manufacturing company and the vendor's data set is trained on data from financial institutions, will it be insightful for you? Also, it's important to consider the quantity of data. Was it all just captured recently or has it been captured over a long period of time? Data tells a story and it often takes a long time to understand it, even for AI.

Ben Pippenger: Third, does the vendor have permission to use its customer's data? You'll want to understand whether the organizations that supply the data have given explicit permission for them to leverage this data to deliver their AI- powered products. If they don't have this, the hype is not real. The vendor may have been able to create some really compelling stats and interesting insights that could pique your interest. However, they won't be able to build a system that delivers true value without having the right permissions on the right set of data.

Ben Pippenger: Fourth question, will you be using my data to train this model? If they are, really understand how they will handle your data, where it'll be stored, and how it will be anonymized and aggregated so as not to cause any potential risks for your organization. Another thing to consider here is how the model is trained. Is the vendor doing this themselves or is there additional risk that your data could get out into the public domain?

Ben Pippenger: The last question is really more of one that you need to ask yourself and your company. What really is the true value of this technology? Are you able to tie back capabilities of the product or tech to a business outcome? Does it allow your organization to be more productive through automation or working faster? Does it unlock insights and information that you weren't able to get to previously? AI is definitely exciting, but at the end of the day, make sure it's driving value for your organization.

Ben Pippenger: Think through these questions as you consider where and when to add AI to your SaaS products. If you aren't getting calls yet or your existing vendors are not bringing forward AI opportunities, trust me, they will. Getting answers to these questions can save you time and cut through the noise to ensure you are focused on the right tools with the right outcomes to drive value for your organization.

Ben Pippenger: Thank you for joining me today and I will catch you next time.