The questions we would want you to ask us.

Why we would rather be tested than believed

Everyone rebranded at once, and from the outside every firm in this market now describes itself in the same words. Ours included. Waves reward confidence over competence, and confidence is easy to write.

So the useful test is not the claim but the answer: hard questions, put to the people who would actually do the work, answered in the room where nothing can be prepared in advance or faked. We would rather be judged that way, and we wrote this list knowing we would have to pass it.

The questions worth asking

• What would you not use AI for? The honest answer is against the interest of whoever gives it, so listen for whether one is ready.
• Who exactly will do the work? The people in the room, or people you will never meet?
• Ask for something in production, with numbers. Demos are rehearsed. Production has scars.
• What happens after the pilot, and who owns adoption? If the answer is vague, the gap will be yours to cross alone.
• How will you be less dependent in a year? The right answer involves your own people getting stronger.

What do good answers sound like?

Specific and slightly boring. Senior people who will actually do the work, named. Production stories with numbers attached and lessons admitted. Governance treated as normal, not as an obstacle to be managed around. A stated intention to transfer capability rather than accumulate dependency. And at least one story about telling a client no.

Why does the dependency question matter most?

Because it reveals the business model, and a business model is harder to disguise than a pitch. An engagement is either designed to leave your people stronger or it is not, and the difference shows up in a year whether anyone intended it or not.

Our answer, for the record: you should need us less in a year than you do now. The capability stays with your people, the governance is clearer than we found it, and if you continue it should be because the judgement keeps earning its place rather than because stopping has become difficult.

Common questions

Big firm or specialist?

Depends on the job. Large-scale resourcing suits a large firm. Judgement on consequential decisions suits senior specialists. The questions work on both.

How much do AI certifications matter?

Far less than production history. Certificates show a course was passed. Production shows consequences were carried.

What is a fair first engagement?

Something small, senior and defined: a working session or a short discovery with a named outcome.