How to Evaluate an AI Consulting Partner

Choosing an AI consulting partner requires evaluating more than AI expertise, brand reputation, or prototype capability. The article proposes assessing providers across three connected layers: strategy, data and analytics, and AI engineering, with particular attention to data architecture, governance, production ML, security, monitoring, and knowledge transfer. It also recommends using evidence from real deployments and a weighted scorecard aligned to organizational priorities. Technology leaders should favor partners that can turn AI strategy into maintainable production capability without creating unnecessary dependency.