Do I need AI? Can deterministic code solve it?

• Ask what the user actually needs and what the existing system already knows.
• Exact lookups, arithmetic, validation, and known transitions usually belong in normal code.
• AI is useful when language/media variation or learned pattern recognition provides value that rules cannot achieve economically.

Evidence to seek: a rules baseline, representative inputs, failure cost, and measurable benefit. “Our competitors have an agent” is not a task requirement.