12 Questions to Ask Before Buying a School AI Platform: Data Ownership, Full Export, Freedom to Switch

Short answer: when buying an AI platform, the most important thing is not the feature list but "if we leave next year, can we take all our data today?" These 12 questions help schools settle that — plus pricing, safety, models and deployment — before signing.

Over the past year, many schools chose AI platforms in a hurry under grant pressure, only to find in year two that results could not be exported, conversation logs could only be screenshotted page by page, and switching vendors meant re-entering the whole curriculum. This article distils the questions a procurement team should ask into 12 items, each with a passing answer and a red flag.

Part 1 — Data ownership and portability (the 4 most important)

1. Does the contract state that all data belongs to the school?

• Pass: the contract says explicitly that all school data (student records, knowledge base, resources, marking, conversations, results) belongs to the school; the vendor only processes it.
• Red flag: vague "user content", "joint ownership", or no mention at all.

2. Can the school download everything, free, at any time?

• Pass: an administrator exports the whole school in one click (JSON / CSV / original files) — no request, no fee, no limit.
• Red flag: "contact customer service", "export quoted separately", PDF only.

This question is the litmus test of a vendor's confidence. A company that believes in its service does not keep schools by holding their data. Schools should stay because the product is good, not because leaving is impossible.

3. Are on-premises and cloud deployments equal in ownership?

• Pass: both deployments have identical features, the data belongs to the school either way, and both support full export at any time.
• Red flag: the cloud edition "does not support export", or the on-premises edition "has fewer features".

4. Is there a lock-in period? What happens to data at termination?

• Pass: annual subscription with no minimum term; assisted migration at termination, deletion within an agreed period with a deletion certificate.
• Red flag: three-year bundles, early termination penalties, data "retained for reactivation".

Part 2 — Pricing model (2 questions)

5. Is AI usage billed separately?

• Pass: AI usage is included; no token or per-call fees; admins may set quotas for governance.
• Red flag: "usage-based billing", "overage charged" — budgets become unpredictable and teachers stop using the tool.

6. Are accounts capped?

• Pass: unlimited whole-school accounts (e.g. 800 students + 100 staff), not per seat.
• Red flag: per-user or per-class pricing that must be renegotiated whenever enrolment changes.

Part 3 — Models and technology (3 questions)

7. Which AI providers are supported, and can we switch?

• Pass: OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Poe, local models (Ollama) switchable in the admin panel without touching teaching settings.
• Red flag: tied to one model, or switching requires "custom development".

8. Can we use our own school domain?

• Pass: the school points ai.school.edu.hk at the vendor via CNAME; the vendor issues and renews certificates automatically; staff and students log in at the school's address.
• Red flag: vendor URL only, or a large surcharge for a custom domain.

9. What language and interface serve Hong Kong teachers and students?

• Pass: Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong) UI with English toggle; AI output selectable per tool; Cantonese, Putonghua and English oral practice.
• Red flag: Simplified Chinese or English only; terminology that does not match the local curriculum.

Part 4 — Safety and compliance (3 questions)

10. How is student personal data protected?

• Pass: phone, student ID, guardian contact and SEN notes encrypted at rest; API calls under no-training terms; a PDPO mapping document.

11. What guards and monitoring apply when students use AI?

• Pass: four layers — input guard, system prompt, output review, audit & quotas; live teacher monitoring, pause and flag; human review of flags.

12. What does the audit log cover?

• Pass: logins, exports, settings changes, account management and every AI interaction, viewable and exportable by admins.

One-page scorecard

Out of 24, we suggest not shortlisting below 18, and eliminating any vendor scoring 0 on questions 1–4.

Takeaway

Features can be added over time; data you cannot take with you only hurts two years later. Write "data always belongs to the school, full export at any time, free to switch vendors" into the specification first, then look at features — it is the fairest approach for the school, for students and for vendors alike.