Test your AI vendor like gold.
Assay is the firm enterprises hire before they sign with an AI builder. We pressure-test the pitch, audit the platform, model the five-year cost, and put our findings in writing. We are not for sale to the firms we evaluate.
Every AI vendor pitch is sold by the vendor.
When a Fortune 1000 evaluates an eight-figure AI program, every voice in the room is paid to close it. Gartner is paid by the vendors it ranks. Big Four advisory has a delivery practice that bids on the same RFP. The vendor's reference customers were chosen by the vendor.
Buyer-side advisory exists in law, in M&A, in real estate, in venture. It does not exist in enterprise AI. Assay is the firm that exists only on your side of the table — paid by the buyer, never by the seller, never delivering the implementation it evaluates.
Four stations. One verdict.
Touchstone
We start with the pitch deck and the reference list the vendor gave you. We rebuild the math from scratch, call references the vendor didn't list, and grade the claims against what's publicly verifiable.
Bench
We run the vendor's platform against three workloads you choose. We measure latency, accuracy, cost-per-decision, audit-trail completeness, and failure modes under pressure. Findings are written, sourced, and reproducible.
Contract
We read every clause. SLA, indemnification, data residency, model lock-in, kill-switch behavior, exit terms. We mark the clauses your General Counsel should refuse to sign and propose the rewrites.
Verdict
You receive a written verdict: proceed, renegotiate, decline, or run a counter-RFP. The verdict is yours to share with the Board. Our name goes on it.
Paid by you. Not by them.
Compare to a single discovery sprint with a delivery firm that benefits from your saying yes. Our entire fee is less than the change-order on a wrong-vendor decision.
The signature on the AI contract.
What General Counsel asks first.
Do you take referral fees from any vendor, ever?+
No. The firm's policy refuses vendor referral fees, vendor speaking fees, vendor advisory shares, and vendor marketing development funds. The policy is audited annually by an independent CPA and the audit letter is provided on request.
Will you tell us which vendor to choose?+
When a vendor clearly meets the bar, yes. When two vendors are within evaluation tolerance, we say so and structure a head-to-head bench run. We will not pick a coin-flip just to give you a clean answer.
Can you take both sides — advise the buyer and also deliver the implementation?+
Never. Assay does not implement what it evaluates. We refer to a curated panel of implementation partners on the buyer's request only. We take no fee from those partners.
Who are your engineers?+
Senior practitioners from the AI-platform engineering bench — ex-platform leads at Anthropic, AWS, Stripe, and Snowflake adjacents. The roster is named in our engagement letter. We do not subcontract the work.
Can we use your verdict in negotiation with the vendor?+
Yes. The verdict is your asset. Most clients share the executive summary with the vendor; the full bench data and contract redline stay internal. Vendors who change behavior after seeing the verdict are doing exactly what they should.
What if the vendor refuses access to their platform for the bench?+
That is the verdict. We document the refusal in writing and recommend against signing. Any vendor unwilling to be measured in a structured evaluation has already told you the answer.
Before you sign,
put the vendor on the bench.
Three weeks. Written findings. Conflict-free. Engagement letter and CPA-audited conflict policy provided on request.
bench@assay.firm