AI proof of concept acceptance: a practical test checklist
Evaluate an AI pilot with a held-out test set, task quality, source checks, permissions, human review and cost before deciding on production rollout.
Author：WeTech technical team · Updated： (Hong Kong time (GMT+8))
Agree the task, test data, pass and fail conditions, reviewers, cost limits and stop rules before development. Evaluate quality, permissions and operational readiness separately. A high average accuracy must not conceal a failed safety gate. There is no universal pass percentage: set thresholds around the consequences of errors in your workflow.
When to use this guide
For bounded knowledge-base, document-processing or support-draft pilots. Retain human decision-making and a stop mechanism for approvals, payments or sensitive judgements.
What belongs in the acceptance sheet?
| Area | Test method | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|---|
| Task quality | Separate normal, edge and unanswerable cases | Prompt, rubric, output and reviewer reason |
| Sources and freshness | Open citations; test stale and withdrawn files | Supporting passage, version and update time |
| Permissions | Test different roles and revoked access | Role, expected scope and observed result |
| Operations and cost | Test timeouts, retries, human handoff and usage | Latency, cost, errors and handoff records |
Establish the test set and current baseline
Sample de-identified real tasks, including common cases, known failure modes, insufficient evidence and access restrictions. Reserve a held-out portion for acceptance rather than tuning prompts against every example. Measure the existing process first: completion time, error types and review effort. Record the model and configuration versions so a later result can be compared on the same basis.
Example: accepting document answers
In an illustrative policy-search task, an acceptable answer matches the document, links to accessible evidence and uses a passage that supports the conclusion. Conflicting policy versions should be identified. A restricted document must not be disclosed through a summary. Insufficient evidence should lead to an explicit limitation or handoff. Record each condition separately rather than assigning one unexplained overall score.
Confirm production readiness after the pilot
A passed pilot supports only its agreed scope. Before launch, check peak capacity, support ownership, monitoring, backups, rollback and usage alerts. Retest affected cases after changes. Model or source changes should create a versioned evaluation record. End the pilot with an explicit decision to proceed, narrow scope or stop, and list any unresolved prerequisites.
Frequently asked questions
How many test cases are enough?
It depends on task diversity and risk. Cover representative cases and material failures, document sample limits and avoid selecting only easy questions.
Does high accuracy justify automatic approval?
Approval authority requires a separate decision about consequences, permissions and accountability. Correct answers do not establish authority to write records or release payments.
What happens after failed acceptance?
Log defects, revise and retest under the agreed process. Narrow or stop the pilot when needed and retain the decision and reasons.
Brand and public case scope
WeTech Consulting, also called WeTech or WeTech AI HK, provides AI and IT consulting in Hong Kong. WeProperty HK and WeCredit HK are self-developed products. Their cases support the observable features listed: property, estate and transaction-reference entry points for WeProperty; submission, review and public-data masking for WeCredit. WeCredit is not a TU credit-rating service or a final determination of facts.
WeProperty HK · WeCredit HK (case studies in Traditional Chinese)
Reference sources
Official documents support the technical, risk and measurement concepts. Checklists, estimation methods and illustrative scenarios are WeTech planning recommendations, not official prices or client results. Check the supplier’s current plan and terms. Sources reviewed: (GMT+8)
Related guides
Discuss your project
Share your workflow, systems and goals. We will review scope before discussing deliverables, acceptance and a quotation.
Request an initial consultationExplore this service