Most of the conversation about AI agents happens between owners and vendors. The people who will actually work alongside the agent often hear about it last, and they're the ones who decide whether it succeeds.
This post is for them. It's a week-by-week guide to the first month with a new AI agent: what to expect, what your role is, and how to tell whether it's working. Managers can share it with their team as-is.
First, what an agent is for
An AI agent takes on a specific, repetitive part of your work, such as sorting incoming requests, drafting routine replies, or entering information from forms. It doesn't replace your judgment. It's meant to clear the repetitive work so you have more time for the parts of the job that need you.
You stay responsible for the outcome. That's why the first month is built around you checking its work.
Week 1: Shadow
The agent does its job, but nothing it produces goes anywhere without you seeing it first.
Your role:
- Review everything the agent produces
- Note what it gets right, what it gets wrong, and what it isn't sure about
- Don't quietly fix mistakes. Record them, because each one is a clue for improving its instructions
Expect: some errors, especially with unusual cases. That's the point of this week. You're finding the gaps while the stakes are low.
Questions to raise: Is it missing information it needs? Are its instructions clear? Is anything it does surprising?
Week 2: Approve
The agent's instructions have been adjusted based on week one. It now prepares work, and you approve, edit, or reject each item before it's used.
Your role:
- Approve good work quickly; edit or reject the rest
- Keep noting patterns: are the same kinds of mistakes coming back?
- Tell your manager if reviewing is taking longer than doing the task by hand
Expect: fewer errors and a faster rhythm. Most people find they settle into reviewing within a few days.
Week 3: Expand carefully
By now you'll know which parts of the job the agent handles reliably. Those can move to lighter review, for example checking a sample rather than every item. Anything involving customers, money, or sensitive information stays fully reviewed.
Your role:
- Help decide which routine actions are ready for lighter review
- Keep reviewing everything else
- Watch for new situations the agent hasn't met before
Expect: the time savings start to show. This is also when it's tempting to stop checking. Don't. Sample reviews still matter.
Week 4: Review together
Sit down as a team, with whoever set up the agent, and look at the month honestly.
Questions to answer:
- What does the agent do well? What does it still get wrong?
- How much time does reviewing take compared with doing the task by hand?
- Which mistakes came up most, and have the instructions been fixed?
- Is there anything it's doing that it shouldn't, or anything it should take on next?
- Does everyone know how to pause it and who handles items it can't?
Expect: a clear decision about what happens next: keep going as is, adjust, expand, or stop. All four are reasonable outcomes.
What to do when it gets something wrong
It will. When it does:
- Fix the item yourself so the work isn't affected.
- Record what happened: what it received, what it did, what it should have done.
- If it's serious, or keeps happening, pause the agent and tell the person responsible for it.
Mistakes in the first month aren't failures; they're how the instructions get better. The only real failure is a mistake nobody reports.
Common worries
"Is this replacing my job?" In the projects we design, the agent takes over a narrow, repetitive task, and people keep the judgment, relationships, and decisions. Ask your manager directly how the time saved will be used. You deserve a clear answer.
"What if I trust it and it's wrong?" That's why reviewing comes first, and why trust is extended one task at a time, based on evidence.
"What if I don't understand how it works?" You don't need to know the technology. You need to know what the agent's job is, what it can access, how to check its work, and how to pause it. If any of those are unclear, ask before week one.
For managers
Give people time to review properly, especially in the first two weeks. Make it easy to report mistakes without blame. And be honest about why you're introducing the agent and what the time saved will be used for.
We cover all of this in our AI workforce training, which helps teams work confidently alongside the AI agents we build. If you're planning a first agent, book a discovery call and we'll help you plan the first month.
