AI agent

An AI agent is software that reads a situation, makes a decision within limits set by its owner and takes an action: replies to a new lead, drafts a quote from site notes, updates a record, schedules an appointment, chases an invoice or flags an exception for a person. It differs from simple automation, which moves data between tools when something happens, in that it interprets and composes. The two are usually built together.

For British Columbia teams the value is capacity. A small company's day fills with first replies, copying, chasing and reporting. Agents take that work so staff can do the work that needs a person. Companies with proven demand usually redeploy the saved hours into service and sales rather than cutting roles. The risk is an agent acting outside its scope or on a broken process, which is why guardrails and SOPs come before building.

In practice every agent Ali Sedighi's team builds has a defined scope, a log of its actions, a human approval step wherever money, contracts or reputation are involved and a person to fall back to. The first candidates are high volume, low judgement tasks: lead replies, scheduling, quote drafting, reminders, review requests and weekly reporting. Errors are measured as carefully as hours saved, and an agent that causes bad customer experiences is switched off. Privacy obligations are handled alongside the client's lawyer, with Canadian hosting where required.