Before you buy AI seats for the firm

Where does the time actually go?

Pick three to five workflows that eat hours every week. For example: pulling numbers from PDFs into tax forms, or finding context buried in email. Time them now, before anything changes; a rough weekly estimate is enough to start. If one tool serves several workflows, split its cost roughly. Without that baseline, nobody can tell you later whether AI helped.

Write down: each workflow, who does it, hours per week, the software it runs on and its cost, turnaround, and how often it’s reworked.

Which platform, chosen on the merits?

Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot aren’t interchangeable, and neither are the models behind them. Test the plan you would actually buy, not the free version, on a workflow from question one. Use made-up details, not client data, and give each platform the same context: the task and an example of finished work. Note the model you used in each, and keep it for both runs. Then check what the output won’t show: whether the platform can reach where the work lives, such as email and shared files, and whether you can control who sees what. A suite you already pay for doesn’t decide it: in one engagement, Microsoft’s own tools meant more cost and complexity for what the firm needed.

Write down: the platform, plan and model, what it was tested on, and why it won.

Run it twice in each, since answers vary. Which got the facts right with the fewest edits?

What will it cost at month twelve?

Seats are the cost you see. Add-ons, any usage billed beyond the seat, and the hours people spend learning are the rest. Ask the vendor about minimum seat counts and annual commitments, what happens if someone hits a usage limit, and who sees that spend. Set whatever spend controls the platform offers before rollout. Buy the subscriptions in the firm’s name, so the firm owns the accounts.

Write down: the twelve-month cost, the controls, and who approves more.

Check the arithmetic before it goes to your partners.

What goes in, and what stays out for now?

An assistant is only as useful as the material it can draw on. Start with the firm’s own: templates, policies, how-to notes. Client matters can come later, once that works. Before any client material goes in, read the plan’s terms on training and retention, and check what your engagement letters promise clients about their information. Put the rules on one page people will actually follow.

Write down: what’s in, what’s out for now, what to do if something goes in by mistake, and who can change the list.

Who goes first?

Not everyone needs a seat on day one. Start with the people who do the workflows you measured. People learn fastest on their own work, so train them by role, not in one general session. Name one internal champion, the person colleagues go to with questions, and set aside hours for it. A champion with no time for it is just a title.

Write down: the first group, the champion, and their hours.

How will you know it worked?

Time the workflows from question one again at six weeks, then monthly. Report hours, turnaround, rework and any software you’ve dropped, not logins. Time saved on a first draft that then needs heavy fixing isn’t time saved. If a workflow didn’t move, say so and drop it.

Write down: the date of the first read, and who reports it.

Check the numbers against your own tables before you share them.