I run AI agent teams on my own laptop, under written rules. The decisions that matter stay with me
How it is governed27 years in investment technology
- 1998Wrote the code
- 2005Supported the users
- 2014Owned the product
- 2018Ran it as a service
- 2023 · NowLeads front-office transformation
Every decision goes through five questions, in order
- 1Is there a standing approval on file?Do it and log it
- 2Is it inside the team's mandate and reversible?The team decides and says so
- 3Is it inside the Chief's delegation?The Chief decides and tells me in its brief
- 4Can only I do it (pay, sign, send, supply a fact)?It becomes an errand for me, not a question
- 5Anything elseAn exception report with options, a recommendation and a default.
Tap a ring or a question to light the two together.Hover over or tap a ring or a question to light the two together.
What it does for me
I speak to one coordinating session, the Chief of Staff. It passes my words to the team that owns the work. The team then does the research, drafting or building. I get a record I can read and a short list of decisions that are mine.
The test: does it take work off my desk without taking decisions off my desk?
What stays with me
The AI does the work; I make the decisions. Anything involving money, legal matters or a message going out waits for me.
- Creating a team or changing its charter
- Giving a team access to my mail
- Anything for an outside audience
- Sending, paying, signing and publishing
Agents draft. I read and send.
What went wrong, and what it cost
The full account
- 16 October 2026 Stopped
My first mail assistant was too fast: a single sender list would have moved dozens of priority mails. I stopped that team until a review.
- The same evening Stopped
I stopped the software engineering team, for over-engineering and for running too long. Builds now come only from a specification an analyst team has written and challenged first.
- The cost No saving shown yet
Reading one mail properly cost about 3,100 tokens. I cannot yet show a saving, and will not claim one.
Four worked cases
All work
When the yardstick moves
Six reviews of one page of this site gave marks from 23 to 27 out of 36. How AI roles and I looked for the cause, and what I decided myself.
Six reviews, marks 23 to 27 of 36
Which clicks became calls?
I look after my wife's counselling practice online. In one morning, read-only, my teams found the ad tracking had never counted a single WhatsApp tap or call tap on the website, and set out a plan at the same budget.
One morning, read-only
How an agent team is made and run
The worked example behind the system: who owns a task, who checks it, and what happens when a team fails.
Seven teams, 24 to 28 September 2026
This site
Built and checked with the same method. On 28 September 2026 a figure check stopped a release, and the figures were recounted before anything shipped.
Release stopped, 28 September 2026
