People first, then automation
Why an agent at Atlas only takes over repetitive work after people have laid down how the work should go — and why that is faster, not slower.
There is one rule that steers every Atlas engagement, and it works the other way round from what you’d expect: an agent only gets to take over work once people have laid down how the work should go.
The temptation is to start with the technology. An agent that reads mail, sends invoices, circulates reports — all of that is quick to build. But an agent that takes over repetitive work without a written way of working automates your chaos. It does the wrong thing, just faster.
So we start the other way round. First the team pins down what “good” means: when is an invoice on time, what counts as handled, who needs to look when something deviates. That isn’t paperwork — that is the company’s memory, written down. Only then does the agent get the repetitive load, and people get the room for the work that actually asks for initiative.
We’re applying this to ourselves now. Atlas-Ledger, our accounting product in development, doesn’t start with the agent but with the way of working of our own administration. What proves itself there, we take to clients.
It’s the same reason engagements start with an audit: understand first, build second. Automation is the easy part. Knowing what you’re automating — that’s the work.
- Kaje
