How to Compare AI Agents: 8 Criteria for Business Buyers

The guidelines and alerts in this article were checked on October 2, 2026, against materials published by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC). Check each product's features and pricing in the provider's latest materials.

If you start a comparison by listing product names, your criteria get pulled toward each product's marketing claims. It is better to set your company's requirements first and compare candidates against them, so you do not have to choose again later.

What to decide before looking at 'top picks'

Which AI agent is best depends on the work you delegate. A product strong at first-line inquiry handling and one strong at internal document writing call for different checks. Before comparing, decide these three things.

• The work to delegate: which steps of which business process the AI will handle
• The users: whether frontline staff will use it or IT staff will manage it
• The data: whether customer personal information or confidential documents will be entered

The AI Guidelines for Business (version 1.2), issued by MIC and METI, ask businesses that use AI to use it within the scope the provider intended and to understand the accuracy and risks of its output. If you have not decided what to use it for, you cannot judge whether that use matches the provider's intent.

When choosing a business product, bring in your legal team early. METI's contract checklist for AI use and development is designed for cases where business-unit staff, not only the legal department, grasp the issues and consult the legal department or outside counsel. Checking criteria 5 and 8 against this checklist reduces gaps.

Criteria 1–4: the work, integrations, accuracy and operators

Criterion 1: Does it fit the work you will delegate?

Check whether the tasks the product claims to handle well match the steps you want to delegate. If you would need to build out the parts that do not match, include that effort in the comparison.

Criterion 2: Does it connect to the tools you use now?

An AI agent can only do work once it connects to outside tools such as email, chat, spreadsheets and customer management. Check whether it supports the tools you use and whether connecting them requires extra cost or setup. At the same time, more connections mean more risk. The appendix to the AI Guidelines for Business says that systems with many external connections, such as AI agents, have a wider attack surface and a higher risk of attacks that slip in malicious instructions. Also compare whether you can remove connections the work does not need.

Criterion 3: How can you check accuracy?

Judge accuracy by results from testing on your own work, not by marketing figures. The guidelines ask businesses that use AI to check that it works according to its intended specifications. Compare whether you can verify this in a trial and whether the product can show the basis or references for its results. The guidelines also ask users to input accurate and, where needed, up-to-date data. If an agent keeps reading old documents, any product will give outdated answers.

Criterion 4: Who operates it and who checks it?

Check whether it is clear who runs it day to day and who reviews the results. If changing settings requires specialist knowledge, the product stops working when that person changes roles. Also compare how easy the interface is and whether actions are logged. When AI results inform evaluations of specific people, the guidelines ask that the people being evaluated be told AI is used, and that a person make a reasonable judgment and be able to explain it. If you use it for hiring or HR work, decide who holds this review role.

Criteria 5–8: data handling, permissions, cost and support

Criterion 5: How is the data you enter handled?

The PPC warns that entering prompts containing personal data into a generative AI service may violate the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (Japan) if that data is handled for purposes other than producing the response. It therefore asks users to confirm thoroughly that the provider does not use the data for machine learning, among other points. When entering personal information, it also asks users to confirm that doing so is within the scope needed to achieve the specified purpose of use.

METI's contract checklist for AI use and development also lists the purpose of use for entered data, retention period and deletion, and provision to third parties as points to confirm in the contract. If the provider's terms allow it to use your data for its own training, the checklist says to judge carefully whether to accept that.

Criterion 6: How much permission will you give it?

An AI agent acts within the permissions you give it. The appendix to the AI Guidelines for Business notes that an agent could place orders or delete files that no one intended, and that its behavior could be manipulated while it connects with external systems, sending internal data outside. Compare whether read-only access is enough and whether you can require human approval before writing or sending.

Criterion 7: Cost breakdown

Compare not only the price on the rate card but what you are paying for. Check separately for monthly fees, usage-based fees, setup costs and whether API fees for an external AI are charged on top. How to estimate cost is explained in AI agent costs.

Criterion 8: Support and changes to terms

Compare who responds when it stops working, how fast inquiries are answered and whether onboarding support is offered. The contract checklist warns that services based on terms of use may change their terms regularly, so changes should be checked as they happen. It also notes that when the provider is overseas, foreign law often applies.

A comparison table template

An AI agent comparison table is easier to build with the eight criteria as rows and candidates as columns. For any cell left blank, ask the provider or check in a trial.

What to check during a trial

Once you have narrowed it to two or three candidates, test them on the same work and compare. Do not enter production customer data. Use data with personal information removed, or working data prepared for the test.

• How many times people corrected the AI's results, and how long the fixes took
• Whether it stops or carries on with errors when given unexpected input
• Whether you can review the action log afterward
• How much it cost for the amount used

The guidelines also ask businesses that use AI to keep and use the documents the provider supplies and to follow the provider's terms. Save the explanatory materials and terms from the trial stage onward. The overall adoption process is covered in How to roll out AI agents.

What to check on an Employee Store listing page

Employee Store is a marketplace where companies can adopt AI agents (AI employees) built by developers. Each listing page shows the job, supported tools, deliverables and price. Pricing is one-time, monthly, or upfront plus monthly.

• Criteria 1 and 2: whether the job and supported tools fit your work and the tools you use
• Criterion 7: the pricing model, and who pays for required accounts and API fees
• Criterion 8: the deliverables, and how setup steps and access details are provided

If anything is unclear, you can ask the seller before buying through Ask before hiring. Questions and answers are public, so do not include personal information. After purchase, you receive the deliverables in the trade room and test them in your own environment before confirming receipt. If something does not work, you can talk to the seller before accepting. The full flow is in How it works. What sellers should write on their pages is covered in How to describe an AI agent listing.