Conversational AI procurement security checklist

This conversational AI procurement security checklist is a compact procurement pack designed to accelerate approvals by aligning InfoSec, marketing, and operations. Use this one‑page guide plus the vendor questionnaire and runbook to move from evaluation to production‑ready in fewer review cycles.

Purpose & scope of this conversational AI procurement security checklist

Use this section to set expectations for reviewers and stakeholders. The pack targets procurement teams, InfoSec reviewers, product managers, and operations leads evaluating conversational intake systems (chatbots, virtual assistants, voice interfaces). It clarifies what the checklist covers — security questionnaire items, minimum controls, data handling rules, and an operational runbook for day‑one monitoring — and what it intentionally excludes (e.g., UX design, training‑data licensing).

This document also serves as a security checklist for conversational AI procurement, giving teams a single reference to evaluate vendor posture during negotiation and integration.

Quick approval checklist (one page)

Provide reviewers with a concise, actionable list that can be ticked off during meetings. This one‑page checklist is intended to speed decisions by surfacing high‑impact controls.

• Vendor completed security questionnaire and provided SSAE/SOC or ISO attestation where applicable
• Access scopes verified and least‑privilege roles defined
• Data residency confirmed and encryption (at rest & in transit) documented
• Retention windows and deletion workflows accepted by legal and privacy
• Role‑based approvals and audit logging enabled for sensitive actions
• Runbook for day‑one monitoring available to operations
• Post‑launch review cadence scheduled (30/90/180 days)

Use this as your conversational intake security readiness checklist when running procurement sprints to ensure each reviewer can sign off on the same items.

Vendor security questionnaire: key sections

The questionnaire should map directly to the approval checklist so answers are easy to validate. Focus on concrete, verifiable items rather than vague commitments.

Use the procurement security questionnaire for conversational AI vendors to gather verifiable evidence from suppliers: ask for configuration exports, sample audit logs, and copies of attestations rather than high‑level statements.

This section also explains how to use a security questionnaire to approve conversational AI vendors: prioritize questions that produce artifacts (certificates, logs, diagrams) you can audit, and flag any ambiguous answers for follow‑up before procurement approval.

1. Authentication & authorization: supported protocols, RBAC details, SSO options
2. Network & encryption: TLS versions, encryption at rest, key management
3. Data handling: data residency, data classification, PII processing
4. Retention & deletion: default retention windows and manual deletion workflows
5. Logging & monitoring: audit log retention, tamper evidencing, alerting
6. Change management: patching cadence and emergency response procedures
7. Compliance posture: certifications, third‑party attestations, recent audit results

Access scopes and least‑privilege roles

Define the minimum set of privileges required for each actor (system admin, integrator, marketing operator). The checklist should require vendors to document available scopes and provide role templates you can adopt.

• Enumerate API scopes and map to roles — avoid all‑access API keys for daily operations.
• Require support for short‑lived credentials and SSO integration where possible.
• Validate procedures for emergency access and how those actions are logged.

Require vendors to provide a “least-privilege access scopes and retention workflow template for conversational intake” that maps API scopes to defined roles and shows how retention rules attach to each data store.

Data residency and encryption (at rest & in transit)

Data residency commitments and encryption practices are primary risk drivers for privacy and regulatory compliance. Make these non‑negotiable in the procurement pack where regulations apply.

• Ask vendors to state region(s) of data storage and offer contractual guarantees if required.
• Verify encryption standards for transit (e.g., TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES‑256 or equivalent).
• Request clarification on key management (customer‑managed keys vs. vendor keys).

Retention windows and deletion workflows

Clear retention policies and reliable deletion are essential for privacy controls. The checklist should include acceptable default windows and confirm deletion mechanics — for example, how conversational transcripts and analytics are purged.

• Default retention for raw transcripts and derived logs
• Mechanisms for on‑demand deletion, bulk purges, and proof of deletion
• Impact analysis: what data remains in backups or analytics stores after deletion

Require vendors to document retention windows, deletion workflows, and post-launch review cadence so legal and privacy can verify the lifecycle from capture to permanent deletion and scheduled reassessment.

Role‑based approvals and audit logging

Auditability supports both security and regulatory evidence. Require role‑based approvals for configuration changes and verify that audit logs capture actor, action, timestamp, and outcome.

• List the actions that must be auditable (e.g., policy changes, credential rotations)
• Specify minimum retention for audit logs and tamper‑resistant storage expectations
• Ask for examples of exported logs or SIEM integration documentation

Ask vendors to describe role-based access control (RBAC) and audit logging capabilities explicitly, including which roles can approve changes and how approvals are recorded and reviewed.

Runbook for day‑one monitoring

Provide an operational runbook that outlines monitoring checks and escalation paths for the first 72 hours after launch. This helps operations teams validate vendor readiness and rapid detection of integration issues.

1. Health checks and availability: what to monitor and acceptable SLOs
2. Traffic anomalies: baseline expectations and thresholds for alerts
3. Error handling: common failure modes, automatic retry behavior, and manual remediation steps
4. Escalation contacts and expected response times

Post‑launch review cadence

Set a regular review cycle to reassess risk and performance. Early, scheduled reviews reduce the likelihood of surprises and give InfoSec and stakeholders checkpoints to request changes.

• 30‑day operational review: validate runbook effectiveness and initial logs
• 90‑day security review: assess access changes, audit logs, and any incidents
• 180‑day compliance check: revalidate data residency, retention adherence, and certifications

How to use this procurement pack across teams

Finally, include simple guidance for cross‑functional usage: marketing should validate conversational intents and privacy notice language; InfoSec focuses on encryption, roles, and logs; operations owns the runbook and monitoring. Encourage a single version of the checklist to be the source of truth during vendor negotiation and sign‑off.

Treat the conversational AI procurement checklist for InfoSec, Marketing, and Operations as the canonical artifact when preparing scoping documents, vendor SOWs, and sign‑off templates.

Next steps and templates

Attach the vendor questionnaire, a one‑page checklist PDF, and a runbook template to make adoption frictionless. These artifacts are the practical outputs that convert review time into approvals.