How to Tell if a Company is Really an AI Company.

AI is the buzzword of the decade.

But here’s how you separate the real from the pretend...

1. AI Is the Core, Not the Wrapper

Hallmark: AI drives the product’s decision-making logic - not just a feature bolted on top of traditional software.

• 🚩 Red flag: “AI-powered” feature hidden behind manual processes or rules-based logic.

• ✅ Real AI: The core engine learns from data and improves outcomes over time.

Ask: Would this product still work if you removed the AI?

2. Data Is the Differentiator

Hallmark: The company owns or uniquely generates proprietary data - the lifeblood of effective AI.

• 🚩 Red flag: They rely entirely on public data, scraped content, or third-party APIs.

• ✅ Real AI: Their models are trained on high-quality, domain-specific, structured data at scale.

Ask: What’s your training dataset? How big is it? How did you collect it?

3. Scientific Rigour, Not Just Swagger

Hallmark: The company publishes research, explains its models, and holds itself to high standards of validity, bias mitigation, and explainability.

• 🚩 Red flag: No mention of validation, fairness testing, or responsible AI principles.

• ✅ Real AI: There’s a Chief Scientist. They’ve published peer-reviewed work. There’s transparency.

Ask: Have your models been independently validated? Can I see how you test for bias or accuracy?

4. Product Experience = AI-Native

Hallmark: The UX and workflows are built around what the AI can do - not just a typical form with a chatbot on top.

• 🚩 Red flag: Same clunky process, just with a pop-up that says “AI assistant.”

• ✅ Real AI: The product feels different. It makes the user smarter, not just faster.

Ask: Does the AI change how I make decisions - or just speed them up?

5. Model Governance and Explainability

Hallmark: They can explain how their models work, what decisions they automate (if any), and how humans stay in the loop.

• 🚩 Red flag: “It’s proprietary” is the only answer you get.

• ✅ Real AI: They give you tools to inspect, audit, and oversee the AI’s outputs.

Ask: Can I control or inspect how your AI makes decisions? What happens if I want to override it?

6. Clear Boundaries Between Automation and Intelligence

Hallmark: The company doesn’t confuse workflow automation (calendars, forms, reminders) with intelligence (recommendations, insights, predictions).

• 🚩 Red flag: They claim “AI” but just offer glorified scheduling or rules-based routing.

• ✅ Real AI: The product does things a human couldn’t - with insight, not just speed.

Ask: What’s the smartest thing your AI can do? What can it predict, recommend, or learn?

7. Customer Outcomes, Not Just Tech Demos

Hallmark: They can show real, measurable, AI-driven outcomes - not just usage stats or pretty dashboards.

• 🚩 Red flag: Success = number of users, number of interviews, number of logins.

• ✅ Real AI: Success = faster time to hire, higher retention, reduced bias, improved quality.

Ask: What business results can you attribute to your AI?

Until next time ..

TL;DR: Real AI companies are defined by…