Designing a China AI Procurement Mission
Design an AI procurement mission in China with comparable vendor tasks, acceptance criteria, lifecycle costs and a clear path to technical diligence.
A procurement mission works best when suppliers respond to the same problem statement. Define the intended workflow, required interfaces and acceptance conditions before arranging meetings. Ask each supplier to explain implementation, support and exit costs so a low headline price does not dominate the comparison.
What to evaluate
Requirements
Translate strategic goals into representative tasks, constraints and evidence thresholds.
Market scan
Compare categories and operating models before shortlisting familiar names.
Diligence
Test capability, delivery, security, economics, support and continuity consistently.
Decision process
Define conflicts, scoring, stage gates, approvals and negotiation boundaries.
Worked evaluation exercise
The following is an illustrative assessment exercise, not a reported customer result.
Give shortlisted vendors the same synthetic service requests and ask them to demonstrate classification, escalation and audit logs. Score the results against criteria agreed before the demonstrations. Keep commercial negotiations separate from the technical record, and identify which capabilities require paid custom development. Finish with a shortlist of unresolved requirements and a test plan; a successful visit should not automatically become a purchase order.
Questions for the operating team
- What evidence advances a supplier to the next stage?
- Who owns the evaluation dataset?
- How are hospitality and access separated from scoring?
Warning signs
- Weightings changed after meetings.
- Vendor-selected examples only.
- Partnership announcements before diligence.
Planning the visit
Use these questions to scope an industry-focused China AI program. Agree which records and operating workflows can be examined before confirming meetings; host participation and access require confirmation. Our research method explains how we structure the brief and follow-up.
References and scope
These references provide policy or risk-management context. They do not independently verify a host's performance or the illustrative exercise above.