Buyer guides
Start with the question in front of you—what to buy, when to upgrade, how to audit a stack, or where a workflow needs clearer guidance.
Seven focused guides, ordered from framing the stack decision to choosing, budgeting, and maintaining it.
Software stack basics
Use this when deciding who owns an AI rollout. If a vendor operates the finished workflow, start with a software pilot; if your team must operate integrations, evaluation, monitoring, or recovery, assign a platform owner. Do not treat pilot approval as production clearance: require a named owner, operating-cost estimate, rollback evidence, and approval for the exact workflow and data boundary.
Updated 2026-09-13
Software stack basics
Use this to choose the right starting path: broad discovery, a constraint-aware shortlist, or maintenance of a stack already in use. Stop browsing once the shortlist can carry a decision: keep meaningfully distinct operating models, and add a newly found tool only when it changes that model or could displace an existing option. Give every unresolved decision gap a named owner plus a closure condition or review date, and do not start the pilot while a non-negotiable gap is ownerless. Verify unresolved shortlist claims before a pilot or purchase, then run a bounded pilot before expanding seats.
Updated 2026-09-15
Choosing a default assistant
Use this when you need to pick one default assistant and validate it on one recurring job. If sourced web research is the deciding job, use the guide's direct Perplexity vs ChatGPT Search handoff and verify consequential claims against the cited primary sources using the research-source checklist before treating the result as decision-ready; if Google Workspace integration is the deciding constraint, use the Google AI tools vs standalone AI tools guide before standardizing. Route connected work data or delegated actions through the permissions review. If the pilot misses the core job, rerun that same job with the strongest alternate under the same success criteria, allowed data, and review boundary before replacing the default, unless the current assistant failed a non-negotiable boundary. Then audit the stack before expanding or replacing tools; use the renewal review before renewing or expanding seats and plan offboarding before switching.
Updated 2026-11-12
Ecosystem and platform fit
Use this when a team is deciding between Google-native and best-of-breed tools: compare one recurring workflow, record the chosen assistant, owner, allowed data, success evidence, and stop or switch condition in a bounded pilot, then audit the resulting stack and capture the decision before standardizing. Before standardizing broadly, run one exit test that proves a critical workflow's inputs, outputs, and handoff can be exported or recreated without depending on connected Workspace context; keep the rollout narrow if that fallback is unclear. Treat a move into a new workflow, team, connector, or data class as a fresh approval decision and rerun the bounded pilot on that new scope before inheriting the old exception. Reopen the decision early when the team's system of work or source of truth changes. Before connecting a personal Google Account to Search services, check the optional Gmail/Calendar content connection, the training and human-review terms for derived data, and the separate Search Services History deletion path; do not conflate this with managed Workspace Gemini data use. If research is the deciding constraint, route source-corpus work to NotebookLM vs Perplexity and open-web search to Google Search vs Perplexity first.
Updated 2026-10-27
Buying guides
Use this when a small team needs its first practical stack and a clear test for adding the next specialized tool: require a recurring job, named owner, evidence of value, and a workable exit; verify consequential research claims against their cited primary sources with a named reviewer and the source-verification checklist before acting; route connected workspace data or delegated actions through the permissions review before wider rollout, then audit existing paid tools before the next expansion cycle.
Updated 2026-10-28
Budget and free vs paid
Use this when a solo user or small team must stay free, approve one paid seat, or renew, reduce, replace, or cancel an AI subscription. Separately verify and approve the exact plan's data handling before using sensitive inputs; keep unapproved pilots on public or synthetic data. Record the workflow proof, owner, review date, and exit condition, and audit the wider stack when multiple subscriptions are affected.
Updated 2026-11-01
Stack audit and maintenance
Use this before enabling connectors or delegated actions—and whenever work-data, personal-record, action-right, retention, or ownership scope changes—to set the smallest access, required human or professional gates, review date, and revocation plan. Treat provider authorization, workspace app access, enabled actions, and ask-before-action settings as separate approval layers, and re-review when an app gains new actions. Before enabling action-capable retrieval, test whether a low-sensitivity document can redirect the assistant away from the user's explicit request; treat connected content as evidence rather than authorization, and pause or revoke access if it follows an embedded command. After an approved send, edit, or publish action, compare the completed item and destination with the exact human approval. If they differ, stop further actions, correct or roll back the result, and narrow or revoke access before retesting. Carry an approved connection into a bounded pilot and review pricing and security before a paid or wider rollout; if the decision is to revoke or replace the assistant, use the offboarding checklist to transfer dependencies and remove access cleanly.
Updated 2026-10-31
Stack audit and maintenance
Use this before renewal or expansion to decide what to keep, replace, add, or cancel. Record the evidence, accountable owner, next review, and stop condition in the AI Stack Decision Memo before treating the label as an approved action. Before replacing a tool, rerun the same recurring job with the incumbent and strongest replacement under the same success criteria and allowed data. Reapprove expanded connector or delegated-action access before keeping or scaling. Use vendor review when terms change, renewal review before extending a commitment, a bounded pilot before adding, and offboarding before replacing or canceling; do not close an action while its evidence, owner, migration, or access-revocation step remains unresolved.
Updated 2026-11-13
Guide standard
Guide pages should help with software-stack decisions by role, workflow, team size, budget, privacy/security bar, or maintenance stage. They should not be mass-generated lists, rankings without evidence, or news posts. Pricing and privacy uncertainty should stay visible where it affects the decision.
Related buyer surfaces: Tool verdictsComparison decisionsUpdate logEditorial policy