Lesson 188 · 2 min
What to hand to an agent, and what to keep
Hand an agent tasks that are clear, checkable and safe to get wrong, and keep the ones that need judgment, trust or carry big consequences.
Agents can now research, fill forms, sort files and draft documents with little help. That makes "what should I delegate?" a real everyday question.
Good tasks to hand over share three traits. The goal is clear, like "find five suppliers of paper cups in Ho Chi Minh City with prices". You can check the result quickly. And a mistake is cheap to fix.
Keep tasks where judgment or relationships matter: deciding who to hire, replying to an upset long-time client, anything legal or medical, or a choice that affects someone's money. Agents can still help by preparing options, while you decide.
A simple test helps: if a new intern on their first week could do it with written instructions, and you would check their work, an agent probably can too. Start small, check results, and widen the job only after it earns your trust.
Do it now
Sort your to-do list
- 1. Write down ten tasks from your week.
- 2. Mark each: hand over, get help but decide myself, or keep.
- 3. Try handing one of the first group to an agent or assistant this week.
Here is my to-do list: [PASTE] For each task, say whether an AI agent could do it, help me with it, or should not touch it, judging by how clear it is, how easy it is to check, and how costly a mistake would be.
Quick check
Keep going
Next →Writing instructions for an agentWords from this lesson
- Agent
- An AI system that takes several steps on its own, such as searching, clicking or using apps, to finish a goal you set.
- Human in the loop
- Designing a process so a person reviews or approves the AI's work before it has real consequences.
- Automation bias
- Our habit of trusting a machine's answer too readily, even when our own judgement or other evidence says otherwise.