Softment

AI Pillar

RAG Consulting

Design and improve RAG systems that stay accurate—better retrieval, safer fallbacks, and measurable evaluation loops.

First stepOpportunity Sprint
Delivery1–2 weeks
Investment$3k–$5k USD
Ingestion and chunking strategyHybrid retrieval + reranking (optional)Permission-aware knowledge accessEvaluation sets + regression checksCost and latency tuning

Problems

What’s slowing teams down

Common bottlenecks we see before AI workflows are implemented.

Answers aren’t grounded

Assistants lose trust when responses don’t match docs, policies, and latest product information.

Retrieval isn’t measurable

Without eval queries and scorecards, tuning becomes guesswork and regressions slip in.

Ingestion is brittle

Docs change often and pipelines break unless monitoring and ownership are defined.

Permission models are ignored

Knowledge systems must respect roles and tenants to be safe for internal teams.

Delivery

What we deliver

Implementation-ready modules designed for reliability, safety, and real operations.

Ingestion + chunking strategy

Design chunking and metadata so retrieval is consistent and debuggable across sources.

Hybrid retrieval + reranking

Use hybrid search and reranking when it improves real queries measurably, then lock it in with evals.

Grounded answers with fallbacks

Citations/excerpts and “don’t know” behavior when evidence is weak—so the system stays honest.

Evaluation loop

Test sets, monitoring, and iteration routines so quality improves over time, not just at launch.

Deliverables

What you’ll get

Representative outputs for planning. The exact deliverables, ownership, and handoff commitments are defined in the signed scope.

RAG architecture plan (sources, access, refresh cadence)

Ingestion pipeline + chunking/metadata strategy

Retrieval tuning (hybrid/rerank as needed)

Eval queries + scorecards for measurement

Citations/excerpts + safe fallback behavior

Handoff notes for continuous improvement

Process

How we work

A pilot-first approach, with the quality and governance needed for production rollouts.

1

Audit

Review pipeline, sources, and failure modes.

2

Tune

Improve chunking, metadata, retrieval, and prompts.

3

Measure

Add eval sets and regression checks.

4

Ship

Deploy improvements and document routines.

Stack

Suggested implementation stack

A practical stack we can adapt to your constraints and existing systems.

Embeddings + chunkingVector DB (pgvector / Qdrant / Pinecone)Hybrid search (keyword + vector)Reranker (optional)Metadata + permission rulesEvals + regression checksTracing + monitoring

Automations

Example automations

A few workflows that usually deliver ROI quickly.

Knowledge base chatbot grounded in docs and policies

Doc comparison and summarization workflows

Hybrid search upgrade for better relevance

Permission-aware internal assistant for teams

Standard

AI delivery standard

Quality and safety practices we ship with AI builds so the system stays measurable, maintainable, and production-ready.

Logging + tracing

Conversation and tool traces with request IDs, error visibility, and debug-friendly runbooks.

Guardrails + safety

Tool allowlists, PII-safe patterns, refusal behavior, and escalation routes for edge cases.

Evals + regression tests

Golden queries, scorecards, and regression checks so quality improves over time instead of drifting.

Cost + latency controls

Caching, prompt discipline, retrieval tuning, and routing so your app stays fast and predictable at scale.

Documentation + handoff

Architecture notes, environment setup, and next-step roadmap so your team can iterate safely after launch.

Security-first integration

Secrets isolation, role-based access, audit-friendly actions, and minimal data retention by design.

Engagement

A deliberate path from evidence to production

The sprint is the fixed entry offer. Pilot and rollout ranges are planning bands; exact scope, price, and commitments are confirmed in a signed proposal.

$3k–$5k Automation Opportunity Sprint

$15k–$25k production pilot after scope validation

$25k–$50k+ rollout and integration after pilot evidence

Timelines

Scope before committing the calendar

Only the opportunity sprint has a standard delivery window. Larger timelines depend on systems, data access, controls, and acceptance criteria.

Opportunity Sprint: 1–2 weeks

Pilot timeline: confirmed from integrations, risk, and acceptance criteria

Rollout timeline: confirmed after pilot evidence and stakeholder planning

Risks

Risks & mitigation

The failure modes we design for so reliability and trust stay high.

Stale or inconsistent knowledge

We define refresh cadence and monitoring so the system stays current as docs change.

Low retrieval quality

We tune chunking and metadata, then introduce hybrid search/reranking when it improves real queries measurably.

Permission and compliance gaps

We design access-aware retrieval aligned with your auth model and document permissions.

Implementation Patterns

How we frame common AI workflows

Illustrative patterns only—not client case studies, endorsements, or production-result claims.

Policy question-answering pattern

Challenge: Policy answers need source evidence and an explicit response when support is insufficient.

Approach: Use access-aware retrieval, citations, confidence rules, and a safe fallback.

Validation: Evaluate supported, unsupported, conflicting, and permission-restricted questions before launch.

Hybrid retrieval evaluation pattern

Challenge: Search quality needs a representative evaluation set before architecture choices are justified.

Approach: Compare keyword, vector, hybrid, and reranked retrieval using the same query set.

Validation: Record relevance, citation, latency, and cost results under documented test conditions.

First engagement

Start with the Automation Opportunity Sprint

One premium entry point keeps the decision focused on business value, operational risk, and a credible production path.

Compare

Decision guides

Quick comparisons to help you choose the right approach before building.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can RAG eliminate hallucinations completely?

No system can guarantee zero errors. RAG reduces hallucinations by grounding answers in retrieved sources and enforcing safe fallbacks.

Can you connect multiple document sources?

Yes. PDFs, help centers, Drive/Notion/Confluence, websites, and databases—based on access controls and formats.

Do you support citations or source links?

Yes. We can include citations/excerpts and links back to sources when it improves trust and debugging.

How do you measure retrieval quality?

We build eval queries and scorecards, then track retrieval hit rate and answer quality across real user intents.

Can you handle permission-aware retrieval?

Yes. We can design per-user/per-role access rules aligned with your auth model and document permissions.

Can we start with a small proof of concept?

Yes. A fixed-scope RAG pilot is a common starting point before expanding scope.

Ready to start?

Ready to identify the right automation opportunity?

Start with the $3k–$5k Opportunity Sprint and leave with an evidence-backed implementation decision.