Definition
Answer Checks
Automated tests that grade an AI agent's answers against a store's real data — catalog, prices, stock, policies — so a brand knows the agent selling for it is telling the truth. The plain name for what AI engineers call evals.
Definition
An answer check takes a question a shopper could ask, has the AI agent answer it, and grades the answer against the store's actual facts — the catalog, live prices and stock, the written policies. Run one and you've spot-checked an answer; run hundreds every day, against questions drawn from real conversations, and you have a continuous report card on whether the agent selling for a brand can be trusted.
Why it matters
An AI agent that invents an answer about shipping, stock, or fit doesn't just lose that order — it spends the brand's credibility. And agents don't fail once at launch; they fail quietly later, when the catalog changes, a policy updates, or a new kind of question arrives. The only way to know an agent is answering correctly is to keep checking it against the live store, the way a good manager coaches a new floor hire by listening to their calls.
How answer checks work
A set of test questions is drawn from real shopper conversations and the store's own data, so the checks reflect what buyers actually ask. Each answer is graded on the things that matter: accuracy (does it match the catalog and policies), groundedness (does every claim trace to real store data rather than the model's imagination), and tone (does it sound like the brand). Failures become fixes before shoppers ever meet them.
Answer checks vs. "evals"
In AI engineering this practice is called evals, short for evaluations. Same discipline, different audience: "answer checks" is the plain name for the merchant who needs to know the agent on their storefront is telling the truth. Kinect runs hundreds of answer checks every day, grading its own agents against real store conversations — the unglamorous work that separates an agent a brand can put its name behind from a demo.
Related concepts
AI Shopping Assistant
A conversational AI agent that helps shoppers find, compare, and choose products — embedded inside an e-commerce storefront or available through an AI platform.
Brand Agent
An AI agent that works for the brand: it sells to shoppers on the brand's own site, represents the brand accurately to outside buyer agents, and keeps what AI assistants read about the brand correct.
Revenue Agents
AI agents that do revenue work for a brand — selling to shoppers, keeping the catalog complete and accurate, turning conversations into customer research — as distinct from the support bots that deflect tickets.
Agent Readability
How easily AI shopping agents can parse, trust, and act on a brand's catalog, content, and policies — the agent-era equivalent of crawlability.
See answer checks in action.
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