How to Evaluate an AI Consulting Proposal: A CFO Checklist

A practical way for CFOs and operating partners to review a $200K to $800K AI or transformation proposal: classify deliverables, re-run the ROI claim and redline scope before signature.

AI and transformation proposals have a familiar shape: a discovery phase, a roadmap, a pilot and an ROI slide that justifies the fee. The CFO is usually asked to approve the spend, not to take the proposal apart. Taking it apart is where the savings are.

Step 1: Classify every deliverable

List each deliverable and put it in one of five buckets. This alone usually reshapes the conversation with the vendor.

• Load-bearing: the outcome you are buying depends on it.
• Filler: documents the company already has, or reports nobody will use.
• Mispriced: necessary, but the hours or rates are out of line with the work.
• Hidden Phase 2: work described as optional or "recommended next steps" that the outcome actually requires.
• Scope mismatch: work that answers a different question than the one you asked.

Step 2: Re-run the ROI claim with your own numbers

Vendor ROI slides are built on assumptions: volumes, adoption rates, error reductions and labor costs. Replace each assumption with the company's actual figure, then test the result across a range. If the business case only works at the top of every range, it does not work.

• Use real transaction volumes from the last twelve months, not industry averages.
• Model adoption at 50, 75 and 100 percent of the vendor's assumption.
• Count the internal time the project will consume, not just the vendor fee.
• Ask when the savings start, not just how large they are.

Step 3: Check the commercial terms

• Is the fee fixed, capped or time and materials?
• Are later phases priced now or left open?
• Who owns what is built, and what happens to your data?
• What are the acceptance criteria, and who measures them?

Step 4: Write the counter-proposal

The output of a good review is not a memo. It is redline language the CFO can send back: deliverables to remove, hours to re-price, Phase 2 work to bring into scope at a fixed fee, and acceptance criteria to add. Vendors respond to specific language far faster than to general concerns.

When to get an outside review

An internal review works when the team has time and has seen similar proposals before. For a first large AI engagement, or a proposal from a firm with far more negotiating experience than the buyer, an independent buyer-side review usually pays for itself in the first redline.