Begin with the visitor journey
List the questions visitors ask, the pages where they hesitate, and the outcomes the business needs. A platform should be evaluated against those journeys, not against a feature checklist alone.
Separate support questions from discovery, qualification, and sales guidance. The distinction determines whether you need a chatbot, an AI website assistant, or an AI sales agent.
Evaluate knowledge, context, and actions
Test whether answers stay grounded in approved sources, whether the system understands the current page, and whether it can guide a visitor to verifiable content. Then inspect what actions it can take and how those actions are controlled.
Measure business outcomes
Useful measures include resolved questions, recommended content opened, qualified requirements captured, meetings requested, assisted conversion, and successful human handoffs. Conversation volume alone is not evidence of value.