An agent is a loop: look, pick a tool, look again. That can be a helpful script. It can also be a raccoon with your calendar.
Aside. The robot does not get your badge. Your manager still reads the email with your name on it.
This lesson is literacy for the meeting, not a build lab for “custom agents for your business.” If a slide says autonomous end-to-end, ask who eats the mistake.
Three questions that make you sound employed
- What are the steps on a napkin?
- What is the tool budget (pages, emails, dollars)?
- Where does a human say yes before anything leaves?
If the answers are “it figures it out,” you are looking at a demo, not a job aid.
A chain you might actually use
Trigger you understand → fetch a record you are allowed to see → model drafts → you approve → send from the real system. That is a workflow. Calling it an agent does not make you behind. It makes you maintainable.
What not to volunteer for
“Let it email prospects until we have ten meetings.” “Give it the admin login.” “It can update prices.” Those sentences are how people become a case study.
Try this today
In the next AI meeting, ask the three questions. Write down the answers. If there are no answers, you just did governance.
You are done when
You can explain agent vs chatbot to a peer without selling either one.