Commitment Drift Monitor for Boutique Research Firms

Instead of blocking proposals before sale, this product tracks whether a boutique research firm’s explicit and implicit commitments drift away from what the project can actually support once work begins. AE ingests the proposal, SOW, kickoff notes, stated hypotheses, promised confidence levels, timelines, and the first tranche of produced evidence. It then flags commitment drift using the six-pattern taxonomy: where certainty outruns evidence, concessions disappear, premises no longer support conclusions, or delivery language quietly exceeds source reality. The key change is the grading loop: outcomes are not based on self-reported regret months later, but on objective near-term artifacts already generated during delivery—change requests, clarification emails, source coverage gaps, timeline slips, and first-week evidence packs. AE can score whether early project reality confirms or contradicts the original commitments, producing a portable audit trail and behavioral contracts for engagement quality. This is sold as margin protection, dispute prevention, and QA for principals and delivery leads, not as a pre-send sales brake.

A commitment drift monitor is a defensible wedge because it applies proven drift-detection logic to a high-value, under-served delivery problem where boutique research firms will pay for early, objective evidence that sold commitments no longer match project reality.

Engine verdict: GATHER_MORE_SIGNAL (WORTH_SKIMMING). Real delivery pain, weak commercial proof: sell redacted drift audits before writing code or assuming firms will share sensitive project artifacts.