Field Note: No 007
Don’t just prove what your agent can do. Prove what it can’t.
Once AI can act on a company’s behalf, buyers need proof showing how the limits of that authority are enforced.
A demo can show that your agent completes the work. Before an enterprise buyer can trust it inside their systems, they also need to see that your agent can be controlled.
In an announcement today, IBM described controls that give AI agents governed identities and limit their access. IBM says access can be denied and sessions revoked when an agent attempts an action outside its approved permissions.
Enterprises have managed permissions and delegated access for years. The implication for companies selling agentic products is that buyers need to see proof those controls can do the job. If your promise is autonomy, buyers need to understand how much authority they’re granting and what control they’ll retain.
Before claiming autonomy, add an attempted action outside approved permissions to your product demo. Show who set the permissions and what happens when the agent tries to exceed them.
Source:
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.