Agents & Automation
Your first AI agent should have one clear job.
A narrow first assignment makes permissions, testing and human review easier to define. Expansion should follow evidence.
“Could it also handle this?” is a reasonable question. Asked repeatedly during a first agent project, it can erase the boundaries that made the project manageable.
A request-checking agent becomes a researcher, then a writer, then a decision-maker. Each addition sounds small. The responsibility is no longer small.
Give the job an endpoint
“Support our team” does not say when the work is complete. “Check a request for required information and prepare a routing suggestion” does. This is a hypothetical task definition, not a claim about a deployed system.
A clear endpoint tells you which inputs are needed, what a reviewer should see and which actions are outside scope. It also makes refusal or escalation a legitimate result rather than an apparent failure.
Each extra job adds permissions
Reading one approved source is different from searching every company record. Preparing a suggestion is different from changing the record. When the task expands, revisit those permissions explicitly.
A first agent should give the team a chance to learn how the work behaves under ordinary inputs, missing information and a rejected approval. That learning becomes difficult when every test exercises a different collection of tools and responsibilities.
A clear boundary makes a mistake easier to understand.
Make expansion answer a real limitation
Ask which limitation is preventing the current agent from completing its useful job. If there is no clear answer, another capability may be a distraction. If there is, add that capability with corresponding tests and review.
Narrow scope does not guarantee a reliable system. It gives you a clearer place to look when the system is wrong. The business-agent planning guide turns this principle into questions about sources, access, exceptions and ownership.
Start with one useful job that your team can explain and review. Let the next job earn its place.