Five things: (1) Industry depth — do they understand YOUR sector's terminology, regulations, and workflows? Generic AI implementations fail at the point of industry specifics. (2) Production track record — how many of their implementations are in production vs. still in pilot? 73% of AI pilots never reach production. (3) Pricing transparency — can they give you a fixed price or clear budget before starting? T&M consulting kills mid-market AI budgets. (4) Data handling — what happens to your data? Is it used for training? Where is it stored? Get this in writing. (5) Time to results — can they show measurable improvement in 90 days? If they say 18 months, find someone else.