Rethink Roles. Lead With Agents.

17 June

Most teams still design for humans by default. They map out steps, assign them to roles, then look for scraps that an AI can automate. It’s backwards.

Here’s the shift: Start with the agent. Design your flow as if the agent owns the process, and only loop in humans where necessary. Treat human effort as the supervisor, not the rule.

In practice, this means redefining roles. You’re not assigning tasks to people, you’re assigning viable work to agents and wrapping humans around the edge cases. In workshops, we now ask three questions on repeat:

Can an agent handle this?
Is it a hybrid?
Or is it truly human-critical?

You’ll be shocked how much can move into that first bucket when you remove the legacy bias of "who’s always done it."

This mindset forces better design. You’ll build leaner processes, reduce handoffs, and cut long-term operating costs. But more than that, you’ll create scalable, AI-native models that don’t fall apart when the team changes or grows.

Next time you're mapping a process, flip the default. Start with the agent. Humans are too valuable to waste on things an agent can do better.