How AI grading works in assessments
AI can grade written and scenario answers reliably when it's paired with rubrics and rule-based scoring. Here's how a modern grading pipeline is built.
Not everything needs AI
The most reliable, lowest-cost grading is rule-based: multiple choice, true/false, numerical, and psychometric items can be scored exactly, instantly, with no model involved.
AI grading is reserved for what rules can't handle — short answers, essays, and scenario responses where meaning matters.
Rubrics make AI grading consistent
AI grading is only as good as its rubric. A clear rubric tells the model what a strong answer contains, so scoring is consistent across candidates rather than impressionistic.
AssessAll grades free-text answers against the assessment's rubric and returns not just a score but the reasoning behind it.
Escalation protects against low-confidence calls
A robust pipeline checks the grader's confidence. When an answer is borderline or the model's reasoning looks inconsistent, it's re-graded by a stronger model before the score is finalised.
This keeps cost low on the easy cases while protecting accuracy on the hard ones.