Field Note: No 006
Your agent acts. Someone has to own the results.
When your agents can move money, change a firewall rule, or send an email, you answer for what it does.
In our conversations this fall, nearly every tech company brings up the same questions about authority. Agents are pulling disparate businesses toward the same promise: let us act for you.
Walmart announced agent profiles this week, due next month, with customer-set limits and no access to card details. By enabling a clear distinction between human- and agent-bought items, Walmart can extend its returns process to cover unwanted purchases made by an agent.
But unless your agents are also in an environment with a return policy, your buyer needs help to defend the authority granted to them. Give your buyer four answers: what the agent does, who authorizes it to act, where that authority ends, and how you’ll put things right if it goes wrong.
Put what your company will answer for beside every promise of autonomy, so your buyer can defend the decision to trust you.
Sources:
- TechCrunch, October 21
- Retail Gazette, September 22
- Walmart’s announcement, October 21
Field Notes is Emotive Brand’s ongoing record of how product-proven B2B technology and AI companies are understood, judged, and valued at consequential moments—and the signals that show when market perception is keeping pace with what a company has become.