FAQ
The questions buyers ask before signing.
Eight buyer-objection questions answered in full: security, data ownership, AI mistakes, vendor lock-in, timelines, what gets measured, who reviews consequential messages, and switching costs. If anything is still unclear after this list, the audit is the place to ask it.
Who owns the data once a workflow is running?
You do. Northbench runs on top of the tools you already pay for; we do not warehouse your records between runs.
Am I locked into you once it is built?
No. The implementations run on tools you already pay for, so handing off the runbook is a paperwork step, not a platform switch.
What stops an AI draft from being wrong?
Agents draft, a human reviews. The category list for what counts as consequential is written down in the retainer brief before you sign.
How do you handle credentials and access?
Your keys and tokens stay on tools you already pay for. Northbench does not hold credentials between runs.
How long does each phase take?
A paid audit lands within two weeks, the fixed-fee build runs two-to-four, and the retainer starts only after a real week of your real volume.
What does the monthly report actually contain?
One page, one workflow, one set of numbers — volume, exceptions, latency, dollars, and a named incident if one happened.
Who signs off on the consequential messages?
A human at Northbench — and the list of what counts as consequential is signed off in writing, not silently expanded.
What happens if the workflow performs worse than baseline?
Under-performance should show up in the first monthly report, not the twelfth — and cancelling on 30 days leaves you with everything you need to run, or revert, without us.
Ready to proceed?
Start with a $250 paid audit, fully refundable against an implementation.