One repetitive workflow, a person reviewing, one month of measuring. The narrow start that beats every grand plan.
The teams that succeed with AI agents start embarrassingly small: one repetitive workflow with volume — the same twenty questions, missed calls, appointment booking, invoice chasing.
Give it your own information, a narrow permission list and a person who reviews the output until trust is earned. Autonomy in steps, especially where money or reputation is involved.
Connect it to the systems where the work lives. An agent that cannot see your calendar, CRM or inbox is a demo, not a colleague — and integrations are where most of the real work goes.
Budget the run, not just the build: usage, hosting, monitoring and about 15–30% of the build cost per year in maintenance. Log every action so you can audit what happened and why.
Measure it for a month like a hire: hours returned, mistakes corrected, leads converted. If the numbers move, expand to the next workflow. If not, change the task.