AI & Automation
AI Agents for Businesses
An AI agent, as distinct from a simple chatbot, can take a sequence of actions to accomplish a task — looking something up, calling an API, deciding what to do next based on the result — rather than producing a single response to a single prompt. That extra autonomy is powerful and also where things go wrong if the agent's boundaries aren't defined carefully.
I build agents with a narrow, well-defined set of tools they're allowed to use, explicit stopping conditions, and human checkpoints at the steps where an error would actually matter.
What This Looks Like in Practice
- arrow_rightAn agent that researches a lead across available data sources and drafts a qualification summary
- arrow_rightAn agent that processes a support ticket — checking order status, looking up policy, drafting a resolution — before handing off for human approval
- arrow_rightAn agent that monitors a data source and takes a defined action when a condition is met
Why Boundaries Matter More Than Capability
An agent with access to too many tools or no limit on how many steps it can take is unpredictable in ways that are hard to debug after the fact. The engineering discipline here is restricting what the agent can actually do, logging every step it takes, and putting a human checkpoint before any action with real consequences (sending an email, charging a card, modifying a record).
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this safe to run without human oversight?add
For actions with real consequences, no — I build in explicit approval checkpoints before anything irreversible happens. Fully autonomous operation is reserved for low-stakes, well-tested tasks where an error is cheap to recover from.
How is an agent different from a simple chatbot?add
A chatbot responds to a message. An agent can take a sequence of actions — calling tools, evaluating results, deciding the next step — to accomplish a multi-step task, which is more capable but also requires much more careful boundary-setting.
Can an agent get stuck in a loop?add
It's a known failure mode, which is why agents are built with explicit step limits and stopping conditions rather than letting them run indefinitely until they decide they're done.