Editorial independence
The policy, in plain terms
A roster is only worth reading if you can trust that nobody bought their way onto it. This page states exactly what we will and will not do, so you can hold us to it.
Ranked by evidence, never paid.
The commitments
Inclusion is free and non-negotiable by payment
Inclusion is free. No provider pays to be listed, and none can pay to be excluded. Being on the roster costs nothing and signals nothing about a commercial relationship, because there is none.
Payment never moves rank. Position on any page is driven solely by our internal evidence score. No amount of money moves a provider up a page, into a tier, or onto the Roster Picks list.
No pay-to-rank, now or later. If we ever monetize, it will be through optional claimed-profile features, enrichment, and lead routing. None of those will ever influence tier or position. The day rank is for sale, the roster is dead.
Evidence per tier
What each level requires
Tiers are earned by evidence, not paperwork or payment. The full scoring lives in the methodology.
A real website offering AI implementation services, an identifiable human behind it, activity within the last twelve months, and clients served in English.
Everything in Listed, plus at least two of five independent evidence signals: vendor certification, a named case study, third-party reviews, cross-listings, or a substantial public footprint.
Hand-reviewed editorial selection of the strongest few per vertical, combining the top evidence score with a review of the actual work. Never sold, under any circumstance.
Conflicts, named
Where our interests could bias the roster
Independence is only credible if the conflicts are stated out loud rather than buried. Here are ours.
We never rank our own ventures. If a company connected to the people behind the roster would otherwise qualify, it does not receive a tier, a rank, or a Roster Pick. It is disclosed as affiliated or left off entirely.
Team affiliations are disclosed. If anyone involved in vetting has a relationship with a provider, that provider is flagged and handled by someone without the conflict, or excluded.
Providers cannot self-list into a tier. Claiming a profile lets a provider correct and enrich its own information. It never lets them set their own tier, score, or position.
Corrections and removal
Wrong, or want out? We fix it.
Every listing is based on public information and can be corrected or removed on request, no reason required. Removal is honored, and a corrected profile is updated as soon as we can verify the change.
Email corrections@theexpertroster.com to correct a detail, dispute an assessment, or ask to be taken down. A claim flow that lets providers do this themselves is on the way.
Corrections are verified and applied, and the last-verified date is updated.
Removals are honored on request, no justification needed.
Freshness
How often this is updated
Every profile shows a public last-verified date, and evidence older than twenty-four months counts at half weight in the score. We re-check providers on a rolling basis and prioritize anything flagged through a correction request. A directory that hides its age is a directory you cannot trust, so ours shows it.