How much do you leave to AI agents? Two questions

Trusting your AI agents more because the models are getting smarter? That is like taking off your seatbelt because you bought a nicer car.

The question "how much can we leave to agents?" is one we hear at BrA1n almost daily. The answer has surprisingly little to do with the model, and everything to do with the task.

There are only two questions that matter:

1. Can you objectively establish whether the result is correct?
2. Is a mistake cheap to undo?

With an invoice, the first one can be established objectively: the amount is right or it is not. With website copy it cannot, because there "good" is a matter of taste.

Put those two questions on a pair of axes and you get the quadrant model we use at BrA1n.

• The passenger: not objectively checkable and expensive to undo. The human does the work, the AI thinks along. Pricing strategy, a reorganisation proposal.
• The driving school: not objectively checkable, but easy to undo. The agent produces drafts, the human judges with a foot hovering over the brake. Website copy, job ads, the first outline of a presentation.
• The barrier: objectively checkable, but painful when it goes wrong. The agent does all the work, the human presses the button. Sending invoices, a mailing to the entire customer base.
• The autopilot: objectively checkable and easy to undo. Just let it run. Meeting notes, sorting the inbox, copying data into the CRM.

I use this distinction myself for automatically answering email, for instance. Having the bot generate the drafts is great, but sending them out unseen is something we will not be doing just yet.

Want to move more tasks towards the autopilot? Then there is work to do: make tasks smaller, build in checks where you can, and above all give clear boundaries so the agent knows where the line is. Do not wait until the next model is "smart enough".

Because that next model is coming. But you keep your seatbelt on.