Practical tests for deciding whether a workflow and its operating environment are ready for agentic automation.
A compelling demo leaves important questions open. Use a five-dimension rubric to examine the data, authority, evidence, ownership and people behind your next agent initiative.
A list of AI ideas is not an operating plan. Define the work, decisions, authority and evidence before deciding whether an agent belongs in the workflow.
A successful demonstration does not create a live service. Pilots stall when they test capability without resolving ownership, integration, economics and operating evidence.
Agents earn their complexity only when a workflow needs bounded adaptation. A disciplined no-agent test can reveal when rules, search or ordinary software is safer and cheaper.
Enterprise readiness scores hide the conditions that make one workflow viable and another reckless. Assess readiness where data, authority, people and operations meet.
Rank agent opportunities by decision value, workflow evidence, feasibility, consequence and reuse—not by enthusiasm, executive volume or demo polish.
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Read the method, assumptions and questions to ask.