how do you actually verify a consultant is using AI vs just saying they do

been burned once hiring someone who talked a big game about AI-driven campaigns and automation workflows. ended up being a guy who scheduled posts in buffer and called it AI. so now I try to ask more pointed questions before signing anything. like, can you walk me through what happens automatically when a lead fills out a form on my site? what triggers what? if they go quiet or get vague there, that tells me a lot. the ones actually doing it can usually rattle off the stack pretty quickly, hubspot to CRM to email sequence, or whatever their setup is. I've also started asking for reporting that shows campaign-level cost and revenue, not just vanity metrics. reckon a consultant running real automation should have that data pretty easily since the tools track it anyway. the ones who can't show specific numbers beyond impressions and clicks are probably not running anything that sophisticated under the hood. curious if anyone else has a good litmus test for this, or had a similar experience where the AI pitch didn't match the actual work?