Big question
What must you own before you hand marketing work to an AI vendor?
The position
Own the data, the rules, the evaluations and the fallback. Nine search lines in September 2026 returned no comparison of any of these products against any other, or against the platform automation underneath them, so your own evaluation is the only evidence you will ever get.
Why it is live
What makes a vendor replaceable is not the model, it is the context, the tests and the exit path, and nobody outside can tell you whether any of these products works. NIST recommends mapping third-party models and data, assigning liability and holding continuity plans, and adoption is running ahead of that.
The case for owning it
UnknowableNo independent comparison of these products exists, so a buyer with no evaluation of their own is holding no evidence at all.
The case against
InferredBuilding and holding evaluations costs staff time nobody has budgeted, and the vendor sits closer to the platform than the advertiser does.
Where the weight sits
Decisively for owning the evaluation and the exit, because the absence of independent comparisons is a documented absence rather than an assumed one.
What would change this
One vendor publishing a comparison against the platform automation underneath it with a disclosed design, or a trade body running that comparison itself.
Where this is taught
AI and Automation
Sources
- NIST Generative AI Profile, Jul 2024primary
- NIST IR 8607, Aug 2026primary
- The CMO Survey, 31 Mar 2026secondary