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title: Everyone's talking about agents
author: Giacomo Balli
published: 2026-07-05
url: https://BigBalli.com/blog/everyones-talking-about-agents
tags: AI, Pricing, Reading
---

# Everyone's talking about agents

*By Giacomo Balli* | *Published: July 5, 2026*

Everyone's talking about agents. Almost nobody has written down what theirs is allowed to do.

An agent isn't a smarter chatbot. It takes actions. It sends the email, updates the record, moves the money, books the slot. The failure mode changes completely: a wrong answer is annoying, a wrong action costs you a client.

Before you deploy one, answer four questions in writing.

What systems can it touch, and with what permissions? Read-only is a real option and it's underused.

What is it never allowed to do without a human? Anything involving payment, contracts or client-facing sends belongs here.

Who owns it when it misbehaves at 2am? A name, not a department.

How do you turn it off? If you can't answer this in one sentence, you're not ready.

This is fifteen minutes of work. The companies that skip it aren't moving faster. They're just finding out later.

[Discuss on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7495494775937212416)

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**Tags:** AI, Pricing, Reading

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