Jobs agents do well
These share a pattern: clear inputs, a checkable output and low cost of a mistake.
- Researching a prospect company before a call.
- Drafting first versions of emails, proposals and job descriptions.
- Sorting and summarising incoming enquiries.
- Turning raw numbers into a weekly written summary.
- Checking a website for broken links or missing page titles.
Jobs to keep human
Anything involving money leaving the business, legal commitments, firing or hiring decisions, or a message to a customer in a sensitive situation should stay with a person. Agents can prepare the work; a human should approve it.
Controls that make agents safe
Treat an agent like a new junior employee.
- Narrow scope — one job per agent, with a written description.
- Approval gates — anything above a set value or risk waits for sign-off.
- Logs — every action recorded so you can see what happened and why.
- Spending limits — usage-based AI can get expensive; cap it.
How to start
Pick one weekly task that takes an hour and has a clear right answer. Run an agent on it alongside your normal process for two weeks and compare. Expand only when the results are consistently good.