How can you evaluate the quality of an Agent's decisions?

• A. Compare the final result to the expected outcome only for one scenario.
• B. Compare the tool sequence and reasoning to an optimal or benchmark plan across scenarios.
• C. Check how long the entire process takes regardless of correctness.
• D. Evaluate based on user satisfaction surveys.

Answer: (B)

Evaluating decision quality comes from looking at how the agent thinks and acts, not just what it ends up doing. The strongest approach is to compare the sequence of steps, tool usage, and the reasoning the agent shows to an optimal or benchmark plan across a variety of scenarios. This reveals whether the agent uses appropriate methods, applies tools correctly, and follows sound problem-solving patterns consistently, not just by luck in a single case.

Reasoning through multiple tasks helps you see generalization and robustness—where the agent would adapt to different inputs and maintain quality, rather than performing well only in a narrow situation. If you only judge by the final result, you can be misled by favorable outcomes that came from chance or narrow conditions. If you measure speed alone, you miss whether the decisions were correct. If you rely on user satisfaction alone, you don’t directly assess the underlying decision-making quality.

So, by benchmarking the agent’s tool sequence and reasoning across scenarios against a well-defined reference plan, you get a clearer, more reliable picture of how good the agent’s decisions are across tasks.