AI & Automation
AI Agent Development
AI agents that take on the repetitive back-office work your team does by hand: reading documents, answering customer queries on WhatsApp and email, and looking up or updating records in your ERP and CRM, with a person approving anything that matters.
AI Agent Development: the overview
Most businesses do not need an AI that runs the company. They need someone to stop re-typing the same data. Supplier invoices arrive as PDFs and email attachments and are keyed into the ERP line by line. Customers ask about order status, balances and delivery dates on WhatsApp and email all day. Staff switch between the ERP, the CRM and a spreadsheet to answer one question, and approvals wait in someone’s inbox. Each task is small, repeated hundreds of times, and needs just enough judgment that fixed rules cannot handle it. That is the work an AI agent is for.
An AI agent sits between a chatbot and classic automation. A chatbot answers questions in a conversation and stops there. RPA (robotic process automation) repeats fixed clicks and keystrokes, and breaks when a screen, a document layout or an input changes. An agent reads unstructured input such as an email, a scanned invoice or a WhatsApp message, works out what is being asked, calls only the tools you allow (an ERP lookup, a CRM update, a drafted reply) and passes the result on. When it is not sure, it stops and asks a person instead of guessing.
We connect the agent to the systems you already run, through their APIs or a secured integration layer, so it works on live data rather than an export: stock and order status from the ERP, customer history from the CRM, documents from a shared inbox. Every tool has its own permissions. Actions that change data, move money or reach a customer, such as posting an invoice, updating a credit limit or sending a reply, can wait in a review screen until a person approves, edits or rejects them. Each step the agent takes (what it read, what it decided, which tool it called and who approved) is written to an audit log you can search.
We start small on purpose. The free pilot builds an agent for one workflow you choose, as the 2 to 3 key modules that prove it (for example intake, the ERP lookup and the approval screen), on a sample of your real data. Your team sees what it gets right and where it needs a person before you commit to anything larger. The full build starts only after you approve the pilot, and the code, prompts and evaluation set transfer to you on full payment.
What AI Agent Development includes
Workflow Mapping
We map one workflow step by step: the inputs, the decisions, the systems it touches and where a person must stay in charge, before choosing a model.
Document & Message Intake
The agent reads emails, attachments, PDFs, scans and WhatsApp messages and turns them into structured data with a confidence score.
ERP & CRM Tools
Controlled tools for lookups and updates in your ERP, CRM, accounting or ticketing system, each limited to the permissions it needs.
Human Approval Steps
A review screen where staff approve, edit or reject any action that changes data, moves money or contacts a customer.
Audit Trail
Every input, decision, tool call and approval logged with a timestamp, so you can see what the agent did and why.
Guardrails & Evaluation
Scope limits, prompt-injection checks, output validation and a test set of your real cases, so accuracy is measured before launch and after every change.
Who AI Agent Development is built for
Back-office & finance teams
Supplier invoices, purchase orders and delivery notes read, matched against the ERP and queued for approval instead of keyed by hand.
Customer service on WhatsApp & email
Order status, balance and delivery questions answered from live ERP and CRM data, with a handoff to staff for anything unusual.
Sales & operations teams
Enquiries from email and web forms logged in the CRM, checked for duplicates and followed up with a drafted message a person approves.
Companies that already run an ERP or CRM
Teams that want AI to work inside the systems they already use, not another disconnected tool with its own copy of the data.
Is AI agent development the right choice?
A good fit when
- One workflow repeats many times a week and needs reading and judgment, not just fixed rules.
- The systems involved (ERP, CRM, inbox, WhatsApp) can be reached through an API or a supported integration.
- There is a clear owner who can say what a correct result looks like and approve the agent’s output.
- You can provide a sample of real past cases with known outcomes.
Consider another option when
- Every step is predictable; rules-based workflow automation is simpler to build and cheaper to run.
- You only need answers, not actions; an AI assistant is enough.
- Mistakes would be costly and no one is yet available to review the agent’s output.
Usually in a first release
- One workflow, built as the 2 to 3 key modules that prove it (for example intake, an ERP lookup and an approval screen)
- A small set of tools with narrow permissions, read-only where possible
- A labelled test set from your past cases, with accuracy measured before go-live
- An approval screen for every action that changes data or reaches a customer
- An audit log of inputs, decisions, tool calls and approvals
Outside the first release unless agreed
- Additional workflows, tools or systems beyond the approved scope
- Actions without approval, unless you later decide a step has proved reliable enough
- Changes inside your ERP or CRM beyond an integration user and its permissions
- Tuning for production volumes before the pilot is approved
Anything outside the approved scope is reviewed and agreed before work begins. See how we work.
Data, controls, responsibilities and ownership
Data migration and integrations
- We document which data goes to which model provider for each workflow, and keep personal or sensitive fields out of prompts where the task does not need them.
- Commercial model APIs offer business terms and data-retention settings that vary by provider and account type. We configure the settings you choose and record them; see security and data protection.
- Where your policy requires it, open-weight models hosted in your own cloud account or on your own servers are an option. They usually mean more hosting effort and can be less accurate on hard cases, so we compare them on your test set before you decide.
- Each tool depends on the system behind it: an ERP or CRM API, a database view or a supported integration, with an integration user your team creates and controls.
- Incoming emails, documents and messages are treated as untrusted input, so instructions hidden inside them cannot widen what the agent is allowed to do.
Roles, approvals and audit
- Narrow tool permissions
- Each tool can do one thing, with the least access it needs; read-only wherever possible.
- Human approval
- You decide which actions run on their own and which wait for a person to approve, edit or reject them.
- Confidence thresholds
- Cases below an agreed confidence level, or that fail validation against your rules, go to a person.
- Evaluation and audit
- A labelled test set re-run after every change, plus a searchable log of every run, tool call and approval.
- Spend and step limits
- Caps on model calls and steps per run, so an agent cannot loop or run up usage unnoticed.
What we need from your team
- A workflow owner who defines a correct result and signs off the pilot.
- A sample of real past cases with known outcomes, to build the test set.
- API access and an integration user for each system the agent touches.
- Reviewers who approve the agent’s output during the pilot and early rollout.
- Model provider and hosting accounts in your organization’s name.
Ownership, support and running costs
- Project code, prompts, configuration and evaluation sets transfer to you on full payment, and your data and documents are yours throughout. Third-party foundation models remain the provider’s and are used under the provider’s terms; see our IP and ownership policy.
- Model provider, hosting and storage accounts are set up in your organization’s name where possible, so usage, retention settings and terms sit between you and the provider.
- Running costs by category: model or API usage (grows with volume and input length), vector index and storage, application hosting, evaluation upkeep when your content or the model changes, and monitoring. Amounts depend on volume, model choice and hosting.
- Providers update and retire models. A maintenance and support agreement covers re-running your evaluation set and adjusting prompts when that happens.
Related reading for this decision
- AI assistants and chatbots
If the need is answering questions rather than taking actions.
- AI document processing
For high-volume document extraction, often the first module of a back-office agent.
- Workflow automation
Rules-based automation for the predictable steps around an agent.
- LLM app development: RAG, agents and what ships
A plain-language guide to agents, guardrails and evaluation in production.
- Security and data protection
How access, hosting and data retention are agreed and put in writing.
How we deliver AI Agent Development
Custom software built around the way your business works. Five steps, with a free pilot of 2 to 3 key modules before the full build.
Step 1: Understand
We learn how your business works.
Your requirements, workflow, challenges and goals, understood before anything is recommended.
Step 2: Plan
We design the right solution around your workflow.
Modules, workflows, roles, approvals, reports and integrations, agreed before development.
Step 3: Select Technology
Choose the right technical foundation.
Technology options matched to your users, security, budget and growth, not one fixed stack.
- Free pilot
Step 4: Pilot
Test our work before full project development.
Free. You choose 2 to 3 key modules and we build them first, so you can judge our work.
The full project starts only after you approve the pilot.
- Full project
Step 5: Build & Scale
From approved pilot to complete digital system.
Full development, testing, deployment, training and support, built to grow with you.
Guides for this decision
In-depth, practical reading for teams planning this kind of project.
- Guide · 9 min readHow to Evaluate an AI Pilot Before Rollout: Test Sets, Metrics and a Go/No-Go ScorecardAn AI pilot is ready for rollout when it meets acceptance criteria you set in advance, on a test set built from your own data, including the hard cases. This guide covers metrics by task type, human review thresholds, failure-mode testing and a go/no-go scorecard.Read the guide
- Guide · 9 min readApproval Workflow Design: Approval Matrices, Delegation and Audit TrailsA good approval workflow routes each request to the right people by rule, enforces segregation of duties and records every decision. This guide covers approval matrices, delegation, re-approval rules, audit trails, testing and a design checklist.Read the guide
AI Agent Development FAQ
A chatbot answers questions in a conversation. RPA (robotic process automation) replays fixed clicks and keystrokes and breaks when a screen or document layout changes. An AI agent reads unstructured input such as an email, invoice or WhatsApp message, decides the next step within rules you set, and uses approved tools to look up or update data in your systems. In practice we often combine them: the agent handles the reading and judgment, fixed automation handles the predictable steps, and a person approves the actions that matter.
Repetitive tasks that need some reading and judgment: processing supplier invoices and delivery notes into the ERP, answering order and account questions on WhatsApp and email from live data, logging and routing enquiries in the CRM, preparing reconciliations for review, and pulling answers from several systems into one reply. The best first workflow is one with high volume, clear rules for what a good result looks like, and an obvious person to approve the output.
Yes, as long as the system can be reached through an API, a database view or a supported integration. We give the agent a small set of tools (for example look up an order, create a draft invoice, update a contact), each with its own permissions, so it works on live data without broad access to everything. If your ERP has no API, we look at a secured integration layer first and treat screen automation as a last resort.
The main risks are a document read wrongly, an action taken on the wrong record, instructions hidden in an incoming email or file (prompt injection), data reaching someone who should not see it, and an agent looping or running up model costs. We control them with narrow tool permissions, validation of every output against your rules, confidence thresholds that send uncertain cases to a person, approval steps for any action that changes data or reaches a customer, input filtering, spending and step limits, and an evaluation set that is re-run after every change.
Wherever you want one to. You decide which actions the agent may complete on its own (for example a read-only lookup) and which must wait for approval (posting an invoice, changing a price, sending a message to a customer). Approvers see what the agent read, what it proposes and why, and can approve, edit or reject it. Many teams start with approval on everything and relax it only for steps that prove reliable.
Yes. Every run is logged: the input it received, the data it looked up, the decision it made, each tool call, the output and the person who approved it, with timestamps. The log is searchable, so you can answer "why did this invoice get posted?" from the record rather than from memory.
You choose one workflow. We build the agent for it as the 2 to 3 key modules that prove it, such as intake, the ERP or CRM lookup and the approval screen, and run it on a sample of your real data, free of charge. Your team tests it and sees where it is right and where it needs a person. The full build starts only after you approve the pilot.
The pilot measures how often the agent gets your sample cases right, shows the integration with your systems working, and lets your reviewers try the approval flow. It does not prove accuracy on case types missing from the sample, behaviour at full production volume, or running cost at scale. Those are checked in a controlled rollout after you approve the full build, with the test set re-run as real cases arrive.
We scope the data path before building and document which data goes to which provider. The agent uses a provider-agnostic model layer, so it can run on a commercial model API with the retention settings you choose, where the provider offers them, or on self-hosted open-weight models when data must stay under your control. Access is limited by role and every call is logged. If you work under specific data-protection rules, we design to support those obligations; compliance remains your organization’s responsibility and is confirmed by your own assessment.
See working software before you commit
Before you commit to the full project, we build 2 to 3 of your key modules as working software, free of charge. Your team tests the pilot, and the full build starts only after you approve it.
See how the free pilot worksUnderstand
We learn your requirements and how your organisation works today.
Select pilot modules
Together we choose 2 to 3 key modules that prove the solution.
Build the working pilot
We build those modules as real, working software, free of charge.
You test it
Your team uses the pilot. The full project starts only after you approve it.
Start a conversation
Tell us how your business works.
Describe what is slowing your team down. We will help you work out what to build, and how a free pilot lets you judge our work before the full project.
Prefer WhatsApp? Start a chatWhat happens next
You send a short brief
The problem, the people involved and any target date. A senior engineer replies within 4 business hours.
We understand your workflow
A first call about how your business works today. An NDA can be signed before you share details.
You test a free pilot
You choose 2 to 3 key modules and we build them first, so you judge real software before the full project.