Build an AI Vendor Scorecard for Executive Buyers

A strong demonstration answers “can this look impressive?” A vendor scorecard answers whether the company can operate, govern, afford, and leave the capability. This decision connects to Build an AI Strategy That Starts With Business Value and Turn Company Priorities Into an AI Opportunity Portfolio, which provide the strategic direction and portfolio context. Use this four-part leadership framework Fit and evidence — Test the product on representative cases and require support for performance claims. Data and controls — Review access, retention, training use, subprocessors, regions, deletion, logs, and admin features. Operations and resilience — Assess integration, uptime, support, change notices, incident handling, and continuity. Economics and exit — Model full cost, usage growth, contract terms, portability, migration, and termination. A practical decision example Two vendors produce similar answers. One provides better source traceability, enterprise access controls, export, incident terms, and predictable usage costs. The scorecard reveals why feature count alone was misleading. This is a hypothetical example; use your own baseline, constraints, and evidence. Evidence, governance, and responsible use Use the NIST AI Risk Management Framework to connect the initiative to governance, context, measurement, and ongoing management. The companion NIST AI RMF Playbook turns those functions into questions leaders can assign and review. The GAO AI Accountability Framework is useful for examining governance, data, performance, and monitoring across the system life cycle. Compare the plan with the OECD AI Principles, particularly transparency, robustness, accountability, and respect for people affected by the system. For generative AI, review the NIST Generative AI Profile and test representative cases using OpenAI’s evaluation guidance. Use the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications to discuss application threats before a model can access sensitive information or take actions. Check performance statements against the FTC’s guidance on AI claims, and review information handling with the FTC’s privacy and security resources. For a broader organizational management approach, study the ISO/IEC 42001 overview. Take this to the next leadership meeting Build a weighted scorecard, but mark non-negotiable gates separately. Include evidence requested, owner, unresolved question, contractual requirement, test result, and final decision. Record the owner, evidence source, decision date, and what would cause the company to stop. The goal is not to make the document look complete. The goal is to make the next decision explicit, measurable, and accountable. Continue with Ask Better Questions About Privacy, Security, and Data Retention. Use Run a Quarterly AI Portfolio Review: Keep, Fix, Scale, or Stop to revisit the decision with current evidence.