How to Measure AI Agent Performance
Measure AI agent performance with metrics that actually matter to the business — accuracy, deflection rate, cost-per-task, time-to-resolution. Plus how to set defendable baselines.
Core metrics
5
Review cadence
Weekly
Baseline period
2 weeks
Acceptable accuracy
>95%
The playbook
- 1
Metric 1 — Accuracy
% of agent outputs that pass human review without correction. Target: >95% for production.
- 2
Metric 2 — Deflection rate
% of inbound tasks the agent fully handles without human escalation. Target: 60–80%.
- 3
Metric 3 — Cost per task
All-in agent cost ÷ tasks completed. Compare to human equivalent. Target: <20% of human cost.
- 4
Metric 4 — Time to resolution
Average end-to-end time from task in to task complete. Target: 5–10× faster than human baseline.
- 5
Metric 5 — Customer satisfaction (where applicable)
CSAT or equivalent on agent-handled interactions. Target: same or better than human baseline.
What you walk away with
Frequently asked
How often should we recalibrate?+
Weekly review for first 3 months, monthly thereafter. Quarterly retraining cadence.