How should a small business test an AI workflow before routine use?

Use a small dated set of representative fictional or approved examples, define pass, revise, and reject criteria before running them, preserve failures, and compare one meaningful workflow version at a time.

KEY POINTS

What the operating concept requires

Include ordinary cases, incomplete inputs, edge cases, and a case that should stop.
Measure factual support, omissions, formatting, correction effort, reviewer time, and failure severity for the real task.
Keep the prompt, provider, model, settings, criteria, and review date with the result.
Repeat the set after material provider, process, data, policy, or integration changes.

LIMITS

What this concept does not prove

A small set supports a bounded operating decision; it is not a scientific benchmark or general performance claim.
Past test performance does not guarantee future outputs or behavior outside the tested conditions.