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LEARN - Capability Building

Does it build internal capability?

Tools should reduce dependencies, not create them. Vendors who transfer knowledge build partners. Vendors who hoard knowledge create captives. Your goal isn't just to buy AI—it's to build AI competency in your organization.

What "LEARN" Means​

The LEARN criterion evaluates whether a vendor:

  1. Transfers Skills: Teaches your team to operate and improve the system
  2. Provides Documentation: Comprehensive, usable documentation for all levels
  3. Enables Independence: Empowers your team to solve problems without vendor support
  4. Builds AI Literacy: Helps organization understand AI capabilities and limitations
  5. Shares Knowledge: Explains decisions and approaches rather than hiding behind "proprietary"
  6. Attracts Talent: Gives your team meaningful AI work that develops careers

Why Capability Building Matters​

Dependencies are Liabilities​

Direct Version: Every time you need to call vendor support for something you should be able to do yourself, you're paying twice—once in money, once in time. Vendors who keep you dependent have recurring revenue. Vendors who make you independent have to earn retention through value. Guess which one is better for you?

Suitable for Work Version: Organizations with strong internal capabilities achieve:

  • Faster problem resolution without vendor escalation
  • Lower total cost of ownership through reduced support dependency
  • Greater agility in adapting systems to changing needs
  • Protection against vendor relationship disruptions

AI Literacy is Strategic​

Direct Version: AI isn't a tool you buy and forget. It's a capability your organization needs to understand. If your vendor keeps AI expertise locked in their team, you'll never develop competitive advantage. You'll just be another customer buying generic solutions while competitors build custom capabilities.

Suitable for Work Version: Organizations building AI literacy gain competitive advantages:

  • Ability to evaluate and adopt new AI capabilities strategically
  • Internal expertise to customize and optimize AI systems
  • Capacity to identify AI opportunities across the business
  • Reduced dependency on external consultants and vendors

You Can't Attract AI Talent Without Meaningful Work​

Direct Version: Top AI engineers don't want to be ticket routers for vendor support. They want to build, tune, and improve systems. If your vendor's model is "we do the AI, you just use it," you won't hire or retain strong AI talent. And without that talent, you're stuck with whatever vendors decide to sell you.

Suitable for Work Version: Organizations that offer meaningful AI work can:

  • Recruit and retain top AI and ML talent
  • Develop internal centers of excellence
  • Build institutional AI expertise over time
  • Reduce dependence on external hiring and consulting

What Good Capability Building Looks Like​

Excellent (Green)​

A vendor with strong capability building provides:

✅ Comprehensive Documentation: Technical docs, architecture guides, best practices, troubleshooting

✅ Hands-On Training: Workshops teaching how to tune prompts, configure systems, interpret results

✅ Knowledge Sharing: Transparent about approaches, decisions, and trade-offs

✅ Collaboration Opportunities: Your team works with vendor team on improvements

✅ Self-Service Tools: Enable your team to diagnose and fix issues independently

✅ Community & Resources: Forums, examples, case studies for continuous learning

✅ Career Development: Using the platform builds skills valuable beyond this vendor

Example: "4-week training program covers prompt engineering, retrieval tuning, and system troubleshooting. Complete technical documentation including architecture decisions and trade-offs. Monthly office hours with engineering team. Customer Slack community with 500+ active members. Self-service diagnostic tools. Certification program."

Acceptable with Caveats (Yellow)​

A vendor with partial capability building:

⚠️ Training available but focused on using, not understanding or improving

⚠️ Documentation covers basics but lacks depth on advanced topics

⚠️ Some knowledge sharing but "proprietary" limits what's explained

⚠️ Limited access to vendor expertise beyond support tickets

⚠️ Self-service tools exist but are limited in functionality

Example: "2-day training on platform usage. User documentation and video tutorials available. Support team responds to tickets. Quarterly customer webinars. Basic troubleshooting guide. Some configuration options exposed."

Unacceptable (Red)​

A vendor with poor capability building:

❌ Training is surface-level "how to click buttons" with no depth

❌ Documentation is minimal, outdated, or marketing-focused

❌ Vendor hoards knowledge behind "proprietary" claims

❌ No access to vendor expertise beyond paid services

❌ System is black box with no diagnostic tools

❌ No community, resources, or learning opportunities

❌ Using the platform builds no transferable skills

Example: "Quick start guide and video tutorials available. Training focuses on product features. For advanced topics, professional services are available for $250/hour. System details are proprietary. Limited documentation to protect competitive advantage."

Evaluation Questions​

When evaluating capability building, ask:

Training & Onboarding​

  • Q: What training do you provide (duration, depth, hands-on vs. lecture)?
  • Q: Do you teach underlying concepts or just product features?
  • Q: Is training one-time or ongoing?
  • Q: Can we train internal trainers to scale knowledge?

Documentation Quality​

  • Q: Can I review your documentation during evaluation?
  • Q: Do you document architecture, not just APIs?
  • Q: Do you explain trade-offs and decision-making?
  • Q: How often is documentation updated?

Knowledge Transfer​

  • Q: Do you explain why things work the way they do?
  • Q: What information is considered "proprietary" and hidden?
  • Q: Do you share best practices from other customers?
  • Q: Can our team collaborate with your engineers?

Self-Service Capabilities​

  • Q: What can our team do without vendor support?
  • Q: What diagnostic and troubleshooting tools do you provide?
  • Q: Can we tune and optimize the system ourselves?
  • Q: What requires vendor involvement?

Community & Resources​

  • Q: Do you have a user community or forum?
  • Q: Do you share case studies and examples?
  • Q: Do you provide sample code, templates, or libraries?
  • Q: How do you keep customers informed about best practices?

Skill Development​

  • Q: What skills will our team develop using your platform?
  • Q: Are these skills transferable to other AI systems?
  • Q: Do you offer certification or credentials?
  • Q: How does using your platform help our team's careers?

Red Flags​

Watch out for vendors who:

🚩 Keep everything "proprietary" and refuse to explain how things work

🚩 Offer only surface-level training on using the UI

🚩 Have minimal or marketing-focused documentation

🚩 Push professional services for everything beyond basic usage

🚩 Don't want your team to understand the system deeply

🚩 Create dependency rather than capability

🚩 Have no user community or knowledge-sharing resources

🚩 Treat support as a revenue center, not a learning opportunity

Why Vendors Avoid Knowledge Transfer​

What they say: "We handle the complexity so you can focus on your business."

What it often means:

  • They want you dependent on their support and services
  • They're worried you'll realize you could build it yourself
  • Revenue model depends on keeping expertise internal
  • They want to sell professional services for basic tasks
  • They don't want customers comparing notes and realizing limitations

The truth: "We handle the complexity" often means "we profit from your ignorance."

Best Practices for Procurement​

During Evaluation​

  1. Review Documentation: Request access to actual technical documentation
  2. Attend Training: Have technical team attend vendor training session
  3. Test Self-Service: Verify your team can solve problems independently
  4. Talk to Customers: Ask how much they've learned and how independent they are
  5. Assess Community: Review user forums, if any, for quality and engagement

In Contracts​

  1. Guarantee Training: Specify training depth, duration, and ongoing availability
  2. Documentation SLAs: Contractual commitment to comprehensive, updated documentation
  3. Knowledge Transfer: Include knowledge-sharing sessions with vendor engineering
  4. Community Access: Ensure ongoing access to user community and resources
  5. Limit Services Dependency: Cap percentage of work requiring professional services

Post-Deployment​

  1. Measure Independence: Track what percentage of issues you solve internally
  2. Document Learnings: Build internal knowledge base supplementing vendor docs
  3. Develop Specialists: Invest in team members becoming internal experts
  4. Share Knowledge: Create internal training and documentation
  5. Reduce Support Tickets: Monitor trend toward self-sufficiency

Real-World Impact​

Case Study: Managed Services Trap​

Scenario: Vendor provided "fully managed" AI service. Any customization required professional services at $300/hour.

Year 1: Spent $150K on initial setup plus professional services.

Year 2: Every adjustment, optimization, or troubleshooting issue required vendor engagement. Spent $280K on services.

Year 3: Team had learned nothing. Completely dependent. Vendor raised services rates 40%. Annual cost: $400K+.

Lesson: "Managed" often means "we keep you dependent forever." Internal capability would have cost less and been more valuable.

Case Study: Knowledge Transfer Done Right​

Scenario: Vendor provided 4-week training program teaching prompt engineering, retrieval tuning, and system optimization.

Quarter 1: Team needed vendor support frequently (30 tickets).

Quarter 2: Team started solving problems independently (15 tickets).

Quarter 3: Team was tuning and optimizing without vendor help (5 tickets).

Quarter 4: Team was contributing improvements back to vendor roadmap (2 tickets, both feature requests).

Outcome: Team became AI-literate, could evaluate alternatives, attracted strong AI talent, reduced vendor dependency.

Case Study: Career Development​

Scenario: Company A used black-box vendor with no learning opportunity. Company B used transparent vendor with strong documentation.

Company A: AI engineers frustrated by inability to work with actual AI. Top performers left. Struggled to hire replacements. Team became vendor support ticket routers.

Company B: AI engineers learned prompt optimization, retrieval tuning, model evaluation. Skills were transferable and valuable. Attracted top talent. Developed internal AI expertise that enabled competitive advantages.

Lesson: Capability building isn't just about the current vendor—it's about building your organization's AI future.

Capability Building Framework​

Vendor Models​

Partner Model (Best)

  • Treats your team as collaborators
  • Transfers knowledge freely
  • Measures success by customer capability, not dependency
  • Documentation and training are comprehensive
  • Outcome: Customer becomes capable and chooses to stay

Service Provider Model (Acceptable)

  • Provides good training and documentation
  • Some knowledge transfer but encourages managed services
  • Self-service is possible but not emphasized
  • Outcome: Customer can operate but vendor services add value

Dependency Model (Avoid)

  • Minimal knowledge transfer
  • Everything requires vendor involvement
  • Hoards expertise as competitive advantage
  • Outcome: Customer is permanently dependent

Learning Opportunity Assessment​

High Learning Potential

  • Comprehensive technical documentation
  • Hands-on training on underlying concepts
  • Access to vendor engineering expertise
  • Encourages experimentation and customization
  • Skills are transferable and career-building

Moderate Learning Potential

  • Good user documentation
  • Training covers usage but not deep concepts
  • Some self-service capability
  • Skills are somewhat platform-specific

Low Learning Potential

  • Minimal documentation
  • Training is "click here, then here"
  • Black box operation with no insight
  • Skills don't transfer beyond this vendor

Key Takeaway​

The best vendor relationship is one that makes you less dependent over time, not more.

After 12 months with a vendor, ask:

  • Can your team solve problems that required vendor support initially?
  • Do team members understand AI concepts better?
  • Could you migrate to an alternative if needed?
  • Are you attracting better AI talent because of meaningful work?
  • Is your organization more AI-literate?

If the answers are "no," you're not building capability—you're building dependency.

What to look for:

  • Documentation that explains why, not just how
  • Training that teaches concepts, not just features
  • Transparency about approaches and trade-offs
  • Encouragement to experiment, customize, and optimize
  • Community where knowledge is shared

What to avoid:

  • "Managed services" as the only option
  • "Proprietary" as an excuse for no explanation
  • Training that's just product marketing
  • Documentation that's thin or outdated
  • Vendors who profit from keeping you ignorant

Choose vendors who want you to become experts, not customers who stay dependent.

Next Steps​