AI for COOs
What should a COO ask an AI vendor to demonstrate?
SimplSolutions editorial team · AI pilots · 4 min read
Published
AI-assisted editorial guidance reviewed for practical use. Worked examples are illustrative, not customer results. Morgan is a fictional character and AI guide, not a verified human author.
Bring your task, not just your questions
A vendor can answer every question about automation without showing the work your team needs finished. Prepare one recurring task with permitted examples, required fields and an acceptance rule. Ask the receiving team to define usable output. Give every candidate the same test and tell them which actions are excluded, such as sending a customer message or changing a schedule.
Use synthetic records for the initial test. The goal is to inspect behavior, not disclose private operating information to obtain a quote. If real data becomes necessary, your authorized owners review its destination, permissions and terms before it is supplied. Do not let urgency expand access by default.
Include the cases that make the demo uncomfortable
Test a normal request, a missing required fact, two conflicting procedures, a duplicate and an unavailable source. Write the expected behavior before watching the answer. The missing fact should remain missing, the conflict should be visible and a duplicate should not create new work. A confident response that invents completion is a failure even if its wording is excellent.
Ask the vendor to explain which part is configured, which part is custom and which part is only illustrative. A slide showing a CRM icon is not evidence of a working connection. Require an exact read or write action and a way to inspect its destination result.
Score evidence separately from claims
Use a simple evidence scale: absent, asserted, partially demonstrated or passes the agreed test. Attach the observed result beside each score. Weight the categories before evaluation so enthusiasm does not change the rules afterward. Your procurement and system owners determine hard gates; an average score must not override an unacceptable permission failure.
| Category | What to observe | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Core task | Accepted output from your sample | What did the reviewer correct? |
| Exceptions | Missing or conflicting facts held | Who receives the hold? |
| Connections | Exact permitted action and result | What happens on timeout? |
| Ongoing effort | Source refresh and support work | Who owns maintenance? |
| Exit | Usable export and transition plan | What remains after cancellation? |
Illustrative editorial photograph, not a customer result.
Count the review work during the demonstration
Have an intended reviewer check the output while someone records time and corrections. Do not accept the vendor's estimate of what review should take. Look for missing facts, wrong-location guidance, unsupported promises and ambiguous ownership. Compare that effort with the current task, including manual preparation and repair.
A useful draft can still require human review. The important question is whether the reviewer can perform that review with available evidence. If they must search three systems to validate every sentence, include that burden in the decision. See the ROI measurement guide.
Ask about the ordinary broken day
Request the manual fallback, support route and duplicate-handling behavior. If a connection times out after an action may have succeeded, does the tool check the destination before retrying? If an approved procedure changes, how are saved drafts rechecked? Ask who investigates the incident and what evidence the team receives.
Price setup, subscriptions, usage, maintenance and exit separately for a defined volume and period. State assumptions and overages. Avoid comparing a flat monthly price with a proposal excluding setup and human support. Authorized reviewers evaluate contractual terms; this script is a planning aid, not legal advice.
End with a decision record
Record candidate, observed results, unresolved gaps, total cost assumptions, owners and the next bounded test. Choosing none is better than committing to a workflow that cannot complete its core task. Keep the evidence so another stakeholder can understand the decision without attending the presentation.
The Operations AI Pilot Charter gives you an editable test and decision record. NIST's AI Risk Management Framework offers broader voluntary risk-management context, not a vendor certification. Request a relevant demo and ask our team to perform your task with SimplAdmin and approved SimplBrain context, including the request that should be held.
