Somali-language AI tools are starting to appear across education, health and employment programmes, and quality varies a great deal between them. This guide is vendor-agnostic: use it to question any provider, including us, before you commit to one. Somali speakers are also not one homogenous group, so it's worth asking how a vendor handles regional and dialect variation, not only whether Somali is supported at all.
Ask how language quality has actually been tested
“Supports Somali” can mean anything from a fluent, natural assistant to a machine-translation layer bolted onto an English model, with noticeably stilted or inaccurate output. Ask specifically whether the assistant's Somali has been tested with native Somali speakers, not only by the vendor's own team, and ask to see it working live, in a conversation about your own subject matter, rather than a scripted demo. The same applies to any other language you need alongside Somali.
If you have Somali-speaking staff or community members, involve them directly: give them ten minutes with the assistant and ask them, in their own words, whether it reads as natural or as translated. That single test tells you more than any vendor's marketing claim.
Ask about low-bandwidth and device reality
Many people you're trying to reach will be using an older smartphone on a slow or intermittent connection, not a new phone on reliable wifi. Ask whether the assistant runs in a plain mobile browser or needs an app installed, how it behaves when the connection drops or is slow, and whether it has actually been used in that kind of environment, not just designed with it in mind on paper. Ask, too, what happens to a conversation if the connection drops partway through: does the person lose their place, or can they pick up where they left off?
Ask how it gets configured to your curriculum or materials
A generic chatbot that happens to speak Somali is a different product from one configured to your own scheme of work, health information materials or CV and interview process. Ask what the configuration process involves, how long it typically takes, who from your side needs to be involved, and what happens when your materials change partway through a programme. Ask them to show you a configuration built on a sample of your own materials, so you can see what “configured” means in practice rather than in principle.
Ask about safeguarding and data
Ask what topics the assistant will and won't discuss, how that is set for your programme rather than fixed generically, and what happens when a conversation raises a safeguarding concern. Ask whether the vendor will support your data protection impact assessment, where data is held, and who can see it. If a health assistant is involved, confirm in writing that it gives general information rather than a diagnosis. See our safeguarding checklist for the fuller set of questions to work through here.
Ask what a pilot actually costs, and what it includes
Ask for a specific quote for a specific, scoped pilot, such as one cohort or one class for one term, rather than a headline platform price. Ask what's included in that price (configuration, training, support during the pilot) and what isn't, and what the cost basis is, for example per learner, per month or per conversation, so you can work out what a larger rollout would cost before you commit to one. Agree the success measures you'll judge the pilot against before it starts, so the review afterwards is about evidence rather than opinion.
Watch out for vague or unverifiable claims
Be cautious of claimed relationships with organisations the vendor won't name specifically, usage figures with no source, or promises of a fixed, flat timescale for every programme regardless of scope. A vendor that answers your questions directly, including admitting what it doesn't yet do well, is a better sign than one that has an impressive-sounding answer for everything.
A short comparison checklist
- Language quality tested with native speakers, demonstrated live
- Works on a basic phone, in a mobile browser, on a slow connection
- Configurable to your own materials, with a stated typical timescale
- Safeguarding rules configurable per programme, with an escalation route
- Support for your DPIA and a clear data-handling answer
- A specific, dated quote for a scoped pilot, with success measures agreed up front
- Willing to run a small pilot before any longer commitment