The Instruction Gap: LLMs get lost in Following Instruction
This addresses a critical limitation for enterprises deploying LLMs, though it is incremental as it focuses on benchmarking existing models rather than introducing new methods.
The study evaluated 13 leading LLMs for instruction compliance in enterprise RAG scenarios, finding that adherence varies dramatically, with Claude-Sonnet-4 and GPT-5 performing best, highlighting an 'instruction gap' where models struggle with precise instructions needed for deployment.
Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown remarkable capabilities in natural language understanding and generation, yet their deployment in enterprise environments reveals a critical limitation: inconsistent adherence to custom instructions. This study presents a comprehensive evaluation of 13 leading LLMs across instruction compliance, response accuracy, and performance metrics in realworld RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) scenarios. Through systematic testing with samples and enterprise-grade evaluation protocols, we demonstrate that instruction following varies dramatically across models, with Claude-Sonnet-4 and GPT-5 achieving the highest results. Our findings reveal the "instruction gap" - a fundamental challenge where models excel at general tasks but struggle with precise instruction adherence required for enterprise deployment. This work provides practical insights for organizations deploying LLM-powered solutions and establishes benchmarks for instruction-following capabilities across major model families.