AI claims that carry high evidence burden
Last reviewed May 24, 2026
These are not banned terms. Each phrase below represents a claim pattern that requires specific evidence before a buyer can rely on it. When an AI vendor uses this wording without the corresponding evidence, that is an evidence signal — not a verdict about the company.
Nine patterns that need evidence
Risk level reflects evidence burden and wording risk — not legality, compliance status, or purchasing safety.
"Fully automated""No human review needed""End-to-end automation" - Evidence needed
- Task scope definition, human oversight steps, escalation protocol, failure handling, and which tasks still require a human decision.
- Buyer question
- Which tasks still require human review or escalation, and what triggers that handoff?
- Source basis
- FTC accessiBe final order (2025) · SEC Presto Automation order (2025)
"98% accurate""Human-level accuracy""Outperforms experts" - Evidence needed
- Benchmark dataset, content types covered, model version tested, sample size, false-positive and false-negative rates, and whether the test matches your actual workflow.
- Buyer question
- Does the accuracy figure hold for the document types and volume in your specific workflow?
- Source basis
- FTC v. Workado complaint (2025) · NIST GenAI text-to-text evaluation (2024)
"Bias-free AI""Zero bias""Fair AI""Equitable model" - Evidence needed
- Subgroup performance breakdown by demographic group, false-positive and false-negative rates per group, training-data coverage, and deployment conditions under which fairness was measured.
- Buyer question
- What subgroup performance data is available, and were the test conditions representative of your deployment setting?
- Source basis
- FTC v. IntelliVision (2024) · NIST AI RMF 1.0 · ICO AI fairness guidance
"HIPAA compliant AI""GDPR-safe AI""Meets regulatory standards" - Evidence needed
- Framework scope, covered controls, audit or assessment method, customer responsibilities, exclusions, and whether a BAA or DPA is required.
- Buyer question
- Does this cover your deployment configuration, data flows, and sub-processor chain — or just the vendor's own infrastructure?
- Source basis
- HHS/OCR HIPAA guidance · EDPB Guidelines on Automated Decision-Making · GDPR Art. 22 & 35
"Guaranteed ROI""Cut costs by 80%""10× cost savings" - Evidence needed
- Customer outcome distribution (median and percentile range, not just top performers), baseline and measurement-period definition, cohort definition, cost basis, and attribution methodology.
- Buyer question
- What does the full distribution of customer outcomes look like, and which customers are excluded from the headline figure?
- Source basis
- FTC v. Air AI complaint (2025) · FTC business guidance on AI claims
"AI-powered""AI-native""AI-driven""Agentic AI" - Evidence needed
- What the AI specifically does, what input it processes, what output it produces, how it differs from a non-AI version, and what human oversight is involved.
- Buyer question
- What specific task does the AI component perform, and what does the non-AI fallback path look like?
- Source basis
- ASA/CAP AI as a marketing term report (2024)
"Replaces lawyers""No agent needed""AI does the work of 10 people" - Evidence needed
- Task scope, which tasks still require professional oversight, escalation protocol, and when the vendor recommends involving a qualified professional.
- Buyer question
- For which tasks does the vendor still recommend or require professional review, and how is that escalation triggered?
- Source basis
- FTC v. DoNotPay final order (2025)
"First AI to...""Only platform that...""Industry-leading AI""Most advanced" - Evidence needed
- Market scope definition, comparison methodology, point-in-time reference when the claim was verified, and evidence that no prior comparable offering existed.
- Buyer question
- What comparison set was used to establish this claim, and when was it last verified against alternatives?
- Source basis
- SEC v. Delphia & Global Predictions (2024)
"Enterprise-grade security""SOC 2 AI""Secure by design" - Evidence needed
- Audit scope and SOC 2 type, certification date, which data flows are in scope, third-party audit report availability, and known exclusions or customer-side requirements.
- Buyer question
- Which SOC 2 criteria are included and which of your data flows — including sub-processors — fall within the audit scope?
- Source basis
- FTC guidance on substantiation of technical security claims
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Check an AI vendor claimGo deeper by claim type
- Fully Automated AI Claims — Automation / Replacement
- AI Accuracy Claim Evidence Questions — Accuracy / Performance
- Bias-Free AI Claims — Compliance / Safety
- HIPAA and GDPR AI Compliance Claims — Compliance / Safety
- AI ROI and Cost Savings Claims — ROI / Outcome
- What Does AI-Powered Mean? — Vague AI-powered
- AI Replacement Claim Questions — Automation / Replacement
- "First," "Only," or "Best" AI Claims — First / Only / Best
- Secure AI Assistant Claims — Compliance / Safety