N 02°Engagement · 02

The Voice AI Pilot Sprint.

Six to eight weeks. Eval-driven. A working pilot in shadow mode, with gating criteria for production.

The phase where most rollouts begin to drift, executed as a controlled experiment instead of a hopeful demo. We build the test first, then run the pilot against it.

A Voice AI Pilot Sprint is a six to eight week engagement that turns a voice AI decision into a working, instrumented pilot you can trust. We design the eval suite, run vendor selection against it, and deliver a pilot running in shadow mode with clear gating criteria for moving to production. It is the phase where most rollouts begin to drift, executed as a controlled experiment instead of a hopeful demo.

N 01°Why pilots fail

Demos, references, and pricing do not predict production.

We build the test first, then run the pilot against it.

Most voice AI vendor selections happen on demos, references, and pricing. None of those predict production performance. A demo proves a call can complete. A pilot has to prove the system works on your real call distribution, across your real customers, against a definition of success your operation actually holds.

N 02°Shadow mode

What “shadow mode” means.

Shadow mode means the voice AI runs against real calls without taking action on them, so you can measure how it would have performed without any risk to a live customer. It is how a pilot produces evidence instead of impressions.

N 03°What we do

An eval suite first, then a pilot against it.

We specify and build an eval suite and harness. We run your top two to three vendor candidates through it and produce a quantitative comparison. In some cases the answer is to build on a foundation model; in most cases it is a specific vendor with specific configuration. We stand up a working shadow-mode pilot, instrumented, and we define the gating criteria for the supervised and production stages that follow.

N 04°Deliverables

What your team owns at the end.

  • Eval suite specification and harness
  • Quantitative vendor evaluation report
  • Working shadow-mode pilot, instrumented
  • Gating criteria for supervised and production stages
  • Integration architecture and runbook v1
Duration
Six to eight weeks
Scope
Fixed, milestone-based
Deliverable
Working pilot, eval suite, gating criteria
Investment
$30,000 to $45,000
N 05°Who it is for

Teams that need evidence, not impressions.

The Pilot Sprint is right for teams that have selected, or are about to select, a vendor and need a structured pilot that produces evidence rather than impressions. The AI Readiness Audit is the prerequisite.

N 06°What happens next

Gating criteria met, a clear path to production.

A successful pilot ends with gating criteria met and a clear path to production. From there, an Implementation Partnership embeds us with your team to take the pilot to a full rollout, with the monitoring and incident infrastructure production requires.

See all engagements →
N 02°FAQ

Questions, answered.

What is a voice AI pilot?

A voice AI pilot is a controlled test of a voice AI system against a contact center’s real calls before full deployment. A ProofNorth Voice AI Pilot Sprint runs six to eight weeks and delivers a working pilot in shadow mode with gating criteria for production.

How long does a voice AI pilot take?

A ProofNorth Voice AI Pilot Sprint takes six to eight weeks and is structured around defined milestones.

What is shadow-mode piloting?

Shadow-mode piloting runs a voice AI system against real calls without acting on them, so its performance can be measured with no risk to live customers. It is how ProofNorth produces evidence of production readiness rather than demo impressions.

How do you select a voice AI vendor?

ProofNorth selects a voice AI vendor by running the top two to three candidates through an eval suite built around your specific success criteria and producing a quantitative comparison, rather than relying on demos, references, or pricing.

What does a voice AI pilot cost?

A ProofNorth Voice AI Pilot Sprint is a fixed-scope, milestone-based engagement, typically $30,000 to $45,000.

Do I need an audit before a pilot?

ProofNorth treats the AI Readiness Audit as the prerequisite to the Pilot Sprint, because the audit defines the success criteria and use cases the pilot is built to test.

N 02°Definitions
Eval suite
A structured set of tests and metrics that measures how a voice AI system performs against a contact center’s specific definition of success.
Shadow mode
Running a voice AI system against real calls without taking action, to measure performance without customer risk.
Gating criteria
The defined thresholds a voice AI pilot must meet before advancing to supervised operation and then full production.
N 44°56′ Next Step

The audit is two weeks. The decision is yours.

Two-week AI Readiness Audit. Fixed scope, fixed fee, written deliverables your team owns.

Read the Method