The Capability Grade Ladder

Demonstrated

Shown once — a demo, or a pilot on curated data with vendor attention. Evidence about the demonstration, not about deployment.

Piloted

Run under real conditions for a bounded period. Stronger than demonstrated, still short of standing on its own without qualification.

Production-survived

Running in production for nine months or more, verifiable through a reference who isn't on a call with the vendor. No claim, client-facing or public, is stated past the grade its evidence reaches.

A claim can be useful and still not be production-survived. The point is to say which one it is before the evidence gets smoothed into a sales sentence.