Workflows · Guide
Run a reverse demo before choosing an AI vendor
Ask a vendor to work through your difficult case while your team observes the decisions.
Replace the rehearsed happy path
A conventional demonstration follows a path the vendor knows will work. An illustrative buyer can reverse the exercise: supply an approved, sanitized workflow example and ask the vendor to explain its handling. Include a missing field or conflicting instruction. Do not use real confidential data merely to make the demonstration realistic; a representative synthetic case can expose many design questions.
Observe decisions and evidence
Ask where each important field originated, what was inferred, and which action requires approval. Request a failed run as well as a success. A polished answer is less informative than a visible boundary between retrieved fact, generated suggestion, and executed action. Keep a record of unanswered questions and avoid accepting a verbal assurance as tested functionality.
Workflow at a glance
Test the operator experience
Have a staff member correct an error, reassign a task, and find the audit trail. Then ask what happens if the responsible person is absent. Measure whether the operator can recover without a developer. The reverse demo should reveal the support model and maintenance work, not just which model provider sits behind the interface.
Turn gaps into proposal terms
Convert unresolved items into scoped deliverables, exclusions, or pilot tests. Compare vendors using the same decision log rather than a feature score assembled from marketing claims. The architecture references below are useful prompts for questions; they do not certify a vendor. Buying becomes more defensible when the team knows exactly which uncertainties remain.
A practical next step
Agree on one failure that would make the solution unusable and share a sanitized test openly with each vendor. Define passing evidence in advance. The purpose is to clarify fit, not stage a surprise contest. Let the operating team inspect how each vendor handles a gap rather than rewarding invisible manual repair during the demo.
Sources and further reading
- Building effective agentsBuilding effective agentsAnthropic · Documentation ·
- Generative AI lifecycle — Generative AI LensGenerative AI lifecycle — Generative AI LensAmazon Web Services · Documentation ·
Editorial approach
AI-assisted original writing, checked against linked public sources. Practical recommendations and illustrative scenarios are editorial analysis, not reported client results. Source dates and product details may differ from this collection’s preparation date.