AI evaluation

Plan evaluation around the real workflow

Discuss representative tasks, expected outputs, failure cases, human review and operational limits.

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Topics to discuss

The real user task is defined

Evaluation measures a concrete task rather than a vague notion of model quality.

Representative examples exist

Cases reflect normal inputs, difficult inputs and real edge conditions.

Acceptance criteria are explicit

Reviewers know what makes an output useful, incorrect, incomplete or unsafe for the workflow.

Source-backed answers are checked for faithfulness

When retrieval is used, evaluation verifies whether answers are supported by the retrieved evidence.

No-answer behavior is tested

The system can decline, escalate or ask for clarification when evidence or confidence is insufficient.

Sensitive-data cases are included

Tests cover privacy, confidential information and access-boundary behavior relevant to the deployment.

Tool/action requests are validated

If AI can call tools, tests include invalid parameters, duplicate actions, permission boundaries and failure responses.

Human review is defined where needed

The evaluation includes the actual review or approval step instead of assuming a person will notice problems.

Regression cases are retained

Known failures become repeatable tests so model, prompt or retrieval changes can be compared.

Latency is measured against the workflow

Response time is considered in the context of the user task rather than treated as an isolated benchmark.

Cost drivers are understood

Token usage, provider calls, retrieval and tool calls are measured without turning a demo estimate into a guarantee.

Provider and component failure is tested

The product has defined behavior for timeouts, invalid output, retrieval failure and unavailable dependencies.

Post-launch signals are identified

There is a plan for review outcomes, errors, user feedback or other useful quality signals after deployment.

Someone owns evaluation updates

A person or team is responsible for maintaining cases when data, models, prompts or product behavior changes.

Contact me directly

Use WhatsApp, phone or email to discuss these topics and agree the next step. Keep passwords, API keys and recovery codes out of your message.

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