How can a buyer decide whether an AI pilot is ready?
Agree acceptance criteria before the pilot. Test representative and difficult cases, inspect failures, and compare quality, staff effort, and running cost with the current process. A convincing demonstration alone does not establish readiness.
Scroll sideways to read all columns.
| Check | Evidence to ask for | Decision it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Correctness | Inputs, expected results, actual outputs, and unresolved errors. | Does the system do the agreed job? |
| Access and data handling | Tests for permitted users, restricted records, and retention settings. | Can it operate within the project’s information requirements? |
| Staff effort | Preparation, review, corrections, and follow-up for comparable tasks. | Does it save effort across the complete job? |
| Failure and recovery | Examples of insufficient evidence, tool failures, and manual fallback. | Can the operating team detect and handle a problem? |
Define success before comparing models.
Write down what the output must contain, which errors matter, and when the system should ask for help. A report may need correct calculations, current sources, clear exceptions, and a useful review format. Agree scoring so each provider or workflow faces the same checks.
Build a representative case set.
Collect approved examples of routine work, difficult cases, and missing information. Keep a separate test set when changing prompts or generating examples. Include the languages, terms, and document formats the system will need to handle.
Check evidence and action boundaries.
Check that sources support each factual claim and that the system identifies missing evidence. Inspect tool inputs, access checks, and recorded results. Include documents or messages that try to direct the agent outside its authorized task.
Include failures and the human workload.
Test unavailable tools, incomplete records, and unclear requests. Check whether the system stops, retries within limits, or asks for help with useful context. Measure checking and repair time alongside response time and provider cost. Staff need enough information to continue an unfinished task.
Use findings to make a defined decision.
Record the tested settings, examples, results, and limits. Decide whether to run a pilot, narrow the scope, investigate further, or launch. Active K Digital can compare models, prompts, and integrations against your agreed criteria and retain the checks for future changes.
Your starting checklist.
- Define acceptable outputs and material failure conditions.
- Use representative cases and a separate evaluation set.
- Check source support, calculations and tool actions.
- Measure reviewer effort, recovery, response time and cost.
- Record the configuration, coverage and remaining limitations.