Confidence Scores
Last updated: June 9, 2026
Overview of confidence scores in Pursuit
What is a confidence score?
Pursuit’s Confidence Scores are rigorous, AI-generated ratings that quantify how accurate and current each contact is. These scores help your team target decision-makers with verified, up-to-date information—dramatically reducing wasted outreach.
Confidence Scores will appear next to every contact's name on the Contact Card page. Hovering your mouse over the score at the top of the Contact Card reveals Pursuit's logic powering the individual score.
Confidence score definitions
Score | Meaning | Description |
> 90 | Confirmed & Reachable | Pursuit has verified a working email and identified a phone number. Title and current employment are confirmed with recent evidence. |
80 - 89 | Confirmed Contact | Either a valid email or phone number is confirmed, and the person’s current title at the organization is verified. |
70 - 79 | Confirmed Title | Confident the individual still works at the organization and have confirmed their title, but haven’t yet validated direct contact information. |
60 - 69 | Current, Not Confirmed | Pursuit's AI analysis suggests the person is still at the organization, but we cannot precisely confirm their current title or contact details. |
< 60 | Not Current | Evidence indicates the individual is no longer employed at the organization—recent sources suggest a role change, departure, or retirement. |
A more granular breakdown:
Score Range | What It Means |
|---|---|
0 | Retired (or poor data coverage) |
1 – 59 | NOT confirmed current at entity |
60 – 76 | Current at entity, but NOT confirmed in specific role |
77 – 79 | Current + in role, but missing direct email |
80 – 89 | Current + in role + has email, but no phone |
90 – 100 | Current + in role + email + phone (full confidence) |
How Pursuit generates confidence scores
Pursuit’s proprietary workflow is purpose-built for the public sector, where most key contacts don’t appear on LinkedIn or commercial lists. Pursuit's system leverages AI to automate what would take a human 10 minutes per contact—scaling this effort to millions of records.
AI-Driven Multi-Source Search & Fact-Checking
For each contact, Pursuit's AI systematically interrogates dozens of independent, authoritative sources using a deep checklist that would be infeasible for humans to complete at scale. Specifically:
Checks if the person has resigned, retired, or passed away.
Determines if they’ve changed titles or roles.
Investigates if they’ve moved to a different organization.
Searches for the most recent mention of their name in any document (including PDFs, minutes, and agendas).
Cross-references current staff listings to see if they’re still listed where previously found.
Scans for available phone numbers.
All findings are date-stamped, ensuring that only the most recent and relevant information informs the confidence score.
Intelligent Change Detection Beyond LinkedIn
Because public sector leaders and decision-makers are rarely on LinkedIn, Pursuit’s AI dives into public records, official websites, and unstructured documents. It uses these non-obvious sources to answer the key questions above and filter out stale or inaccurate contacts.
Sophisticated Email Pattern Recognition & Verification
When a direct email isn’t available, our system infers likely email formats, generates candidate addresses, and verifies each one using best-in-class bounce-checking APIs—so you only get emails that actually work.
Signal Aggregation & Continuous Learning
All collected signals—identity, activity recency, organizational role, phone and email deliverability—are algorithmically combined and scored. The system continuously improves as users interact with contacts and provide feedback.