AI agent governance

An AI agent is not simply another tool: it is a delegation. It receives a mandate, acts in place of an employee and commits the business. The first question is therefore not technical but one of governance: who decides what is entrusted to it, under what rules, with what controls and with what traceability.

This topic brings together Exelvys’s analysis of how an executive committee oversees the use of AI agents. It deals with the scope of delegation, the degree of autonomy that is acceptable given what is at stake, the checks to put in place before and after the agent acts, and the responsibility that always remains with the chief executive. The perspective is that of decision-making: when an agent speeds up judgement, when it diminishes it, and how to tell one from the other.

The articles start from real situations in owner-managed and mid-sized businesses, not from suppliers’ promises. Their aim is simple: to enable a leadership team to entrust an assignment to an AI agent as it would entrust a responsibility to a senior manager, with the same care over scope, limits and accountability.