Decidr

This “checkbox” approach might feel balanced and logical, but it’s a poor way to gauge whether your platform will empower your team and your enterprise, to grow.

In fact, choosing the right platform is less about adding countless tools, and much more about the right mix of features that let you do more with less.

Here’s how you can cut through the noise and zero in on a platform designed for transformation.

The problem with feature-based comparisons

Every platform promises you a list of superhuman capabilities. But a set of disconnected, overlapping or underdeveloped features won’t drive your business forward, especially if your team finds them confusing, irrelevant to their tasks or restrictive.

Instead, choosing your AI platform should be a strategic decision, one that focuses on your growth goals and your ability to enable your people to perform their best.

Focused on growth? Here’s what you should look for instead

Instead of adding more novelty-like capabilities - more ways to generate haikus from your sales data or turning your expense reports into pop songs, you should be thinking in terms of:

• How much time and resources it saves you.
• The smarter ways your team can work together.
• How much adaptability and customisation it offers.
• Whether it helps you solve your most painful bottlenecks.

Ultimately, your platform should enable your business to grow faster, more efficiently and more successfully, not weigh you down with complexity.

Core factors: Integration, intelligence, interoperability, support

When evaluating AI platforms, pay close attention to these fundamentals:

• Integration: How smoothly can it connect with your tech stack?
• Intelligence: Are its models powerful and adaptable, or restrictive?
• Interoperability: Is it designed to collaborate across your team’s tools and data?
• Support: Do you have a strong team alongside you i.e. does it offer training, community and ongoing support?

When you get these factors right, you’re not just unlocking maximum value from your platform, you’re also making sure your team can keep moving forward without bumping up against barriers.

Generalist AI vs. agentic AI vs. vertical platforms

Big words. Let’s take a breath and understand the distinctions between each:

• Generalist AI (like ChatGPT, Gemini etc.) can do a bit of everything, but without depth.
• Agentic AI (like Decidr) is designed to execute routines, collaborate and manage workflows alongside your team, adding much greater operational depth.
• Vertical platforms (think Shopify Plus or Procore) specialise in a particular industry or department. They can be helpful, but restrictive if you want enterprise-wide transformation.

Consider your unique goals and choose the platform that lets you grow in a way that's realistic and sustainable.

How to run an internal evaluation across teams

Getting buy-in from your entire team is crucial. Here’s how to get people on the AI train:

• Get the right people in the room - from ops, marketing, sales, finance and IT.
• Make sure everyone’s perspective is heard.
• Work together to identify your key criteria (like ease of use, adaptability, integration, training, pricing and support) that really matter for your business.
• Create a simple framework or scorecard to rate each platform against those criteria.
• Combine the scores with qualitative feedback from your team to guide your final decision.

This collaborative process helps foster a collective understanding and avoids choosing a platform that looks glamorous on paper but disappoints in practice.

How choosing the right platform helps your business grow without losing what makes it great

Ultimately, choosing the right AI platform isn’t just a technical decision - it’s a business decision. The platform you select should enable your team to grow, adapt, collaborate, and drive greater financial performance while strengthening your workplace culture.

When you view your platform through that growth-centric, people-centric, and strategic prism, you’re much more likely to select a tool that sets you up for sustained transformation.