BOOK TWO · 102 PAGES · PDF + ARTIFACTS PACK

The Agent Decision

A business owner's guide to deploying AI agents in finance — what to automate, what to leave alone, and how to prove either way.

£34 one-off · launch price, first 100 buyers · instant download

Buy the book — £34 See what's inside

102-page PDF plus the 14-page printable Artifacts Pack. Free updates to this edition. UK seller, UK consumer law applies.

The decision, not the demo

Most AI advice for business owners is either breathless or terrified. This is neither.

It is the decision framework an AI engineer actually uses: what to automate, what to leave alone, and how to prove either way.

Written for owners and operators in finance and finance-adjacent firms — mortgage brokers, accountants, insurance, KYC-heavy shops — The Agent Decision walks one composite firm, Helen's, fourteen staff, from "the pitch sounded plausible" to a governed, measured, defensible deployment. It also shows the candidates she rejected, scored on paper, before they could do damage.

No engineering background needed. If you have a specific task you're deciding about, this is the right book. If you want a coding tutorial or a prediction piece, it isn't.

What's inside

Twelve chapters. Every one ends with something you can use on Monday.

The four-test scorecard — score any task in ten minutes, with two overrides that outrank the arithmetic.
Buy, build or borrow — and the 12-question vendor diligence list, five questions you never skip.
The seven ways this goes wrong — every failure mode anchored to a real, cited case.
What an agent needs to work — instructions as contract, boundaries in the plumbing, fallback at the edge, a trace you read.
The regulatory perimeter — EU AI Act, FCA, SEC and state regimes, translated for a small firm.
Two case-study chapters — three safe wins, three high-stakes frontiers, and the rejected candidate in every one.
Proving the money — five metrics that catch "review burden wearing a savings costume".
Governance without a department — one register page, one hour a month.
Security that unifies with your accident controls — four doors, one page.
The 90-day plan and the final sign-off — decide, build, prove, govern.

The chapters

Short titles, narrow scope, one argument each.

Should You Even Do This
The Three Tests
Buy, Build or Borrow
Seven Ways This Goes Wrong
What an Agent Needs
The Regulatory Perimeter
Case Studies: Safe Wins
Case Studies: High Stakes
Proving the Money
Scaling and Governance
Security, Fraud, Adversary
The 90-Day Plan
Appendix: Glossary and Checklist

The 14-page Artifacts Pack — only with the book

Every worksheet, scorecard and checklist as a standalone A4 page. Sold with the book, not separately — one page is free on the site as a sample. Photocopy freely for your own internal use.

Decision Scorecard
Vendor Due-Diligence
Pre-Mortem
Instruction Sheet
Regulatory Readiness
Case Worksheet
High-Stakes Gate
Measurement Sheet
Agent Register
Threat Checklist
90-Day Plan
Master Checklist
Final Sign-Off
Rejected-Candidate Log

Who it's for

And who should save the £34.

Read it if you are

An owner or manager of a small regulated business evaluating AI agents
An operations lead who has to implement without a compliance department
Anyone pitched an "AI agent" in the last six months who needs to say yes or no with a reason on file

Skip it if you want

A coding tutorial — there is no code in this book
A list of tools to sign up for
A prediction piece about the future of AI

Details

PDF, 102 pages, instant download
Plus the 14-page Artifacts Pack, A4 and printable — ships with the book only
Free updates to this edition

Delivered by Stripe checkout; card details never touch this site
Questions before buying? Email [email protected]
UK seller. Digital product — statutory cancellation rights apply as set out in the privacy policy

One last thing

The book's most-used discipline is rejecting candidates in writing. If, after reading, you decide not to deploy an agent — the framework worked. Keep the scorecard as proof.

Buy The Agent Decision — £34 Try the free sample page