Developing guidelines for functionally-grounded evaluation of explainable artificial intelligence using tabular data

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) techniques are used to provide transparency to complex, opaque predictive models. However, these techniques are often designed for image and text data, and it is unclear how fit-for-purpose they are when applied to tabular data. As XAI techniques are rarely evaluated in the context of tabular data, the applicability of existing evaluation criteria and methods are also unclear and needs re-examination. For example, some works suggest that evaluation methods may unduly influence the evaluation results when using tabular data. This lack of clarity on evaluation procedures can lead to reduced transparency and ineffective use of XAI techniques in real world settings. In this study, we examine literature on XAI evaluation to derive guidelines on functionally-grounded assessment of local, post hoc XAI techniques. We identify 20 evaluation criteria and associated evaluation methods, and derive guidelines on when and how each criterion should be evaluated. We also identify key research gaps to be addressed by future work. Our study contributes to the body of knowledge on XAI evaluation through in-depth examination of functionally-grounded XAI evaluation protocols, and has laid the groundwork for future research on XAI evaluation. • Investigation of functionally-grounded XAI evaluation when using tabular data. • Twenty evaluation criteria and six dimensions of quality are identified. • Guidelines on conducting functionally-grounded evaluation are extracted. • Emerging areas of research and key future directions are identified.