A tool demo can be compelling and still tell you very little about operating a system every day. Evaluation needs to move closer to the work.
Four questions to ask
- Can the team inspect every important action?
- Does it fit existing identity and permissions?
- What happens when a tool call fails?
- How quickly can a human take over?
A practical comparison
| Capability | Good enough | Great |
|---|---|---|
| Tracing | Logs | Replayable runs |
| Controls | Role based | Action-level approvals |
| Recovery | Retry | Human handoff |
Our recommendation
Start with the smallest system that can complete one valuable workflow end to end. Expand only when the failure modes are understood.
