Enterprise buyers rarely ask whether an AI system can do the job anymore. They ask who is accountable if it harms someone. Procurement and legal teams increasingly want an answer in the proposal itself, not after contract signature.
Why the question has sharpened
Liability is no longer hypothetical. The Garcia ruling allowed product-liability claims against a chatbot maker to proceed, and the case then settled. Regulators in the EU, the US and individual US states are all looking at companion-style AI. Buyers also have a vocabulary for this. ISO/IEC 42001 sets out an AI management system standard, and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework has a generative AI profile. A vendor that cannot map its work to these frameworks and show independent testing starts the bid behind.
The structural problem for implementation partners
Development agencies and systems integrators are expected to build the product and vouch for its safety. That is the same conflict financial auditing was designed to remove. Hiring clinical psychologists and AI legal specialists full-time is expensive and rarely justified for one bid.
How the partnership works
The Institute sits in the proposal as a named, independent line item. A typical engagement includes:
- a pre-bid risk assessment of the proposed use case
- design review of conversation flows, personas and engagement mechanics
- pre-launch red-teaming against the AI Wellbeing Matrix
- a written report and, where warranted, certification
- an option for ongoing monitoring (see Post 4)
For this to be credible, independence has to be real. Findings go to the client as well as the partner, the partner cannot edit them, and the Institute’s fee does not depend on a passing result. White-labeling the delivery does not mean hiding who the auditor is. Buyers can see that the certifier is separate from the builder.
Track record
Intertangible has worked with institutions where mistakes are expensive. Mizuho Securities credits the firm with strengthening its international innovation network, including for its Innovation Field event with KPMG. Intertangible also spoke at SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025. We have also taken part in enterprise AI events such as Chatbot Summit and IBM’s Cloud & AI Summit, where one concern recurs. Leaders want to deploy, but they fear a system that damages the brand.