Book 2 Workbook: Business in the Age of AI Agents

The end-to-end Practicum route for Business in the Age of AI Agents (Book 2 in the When Intelligence Became Cheap series). Version: 2026-06-30. This route through the contents is for managers and business owners. It starts with an honest maturity check and moves toward an agent-based team, a market where an agent buys, and a change compass. Professionals can use the Volume 1 Workbook.

Your business functions are the axis of this route. Volume 2 is organized around company functions such as sales, support, analytics, HR, and operations. A manager examines functions, not one profession. Browse business cases for examples by function.

The minimum agent governance package

If you do not have time for the full volume, build at least this package for one process:

Process scoring to choose a place where an agent can pay off.
Human Review Matrix to decide what AI can do alone, what requires a review, and what must stay with a person.
Agent Contract to define the role, access, owner, escalation path, and stop threshold.
Evaluation set to test the agent against past cases with known outcomes.
Shadow mode: two weeks of real work with no right to reply to a customer or the market on its own.

This is the minimum governance chain. Without it, an "agent in the process" remains a demo rather than a managed change.

Teams and business (Chapters 1 to 6)

Step 1: Rebuild, do not decorate (Chapter 1). Be honest. Did you "bolt AI onto" the process, or did you rebuild it?

Artifact: Process maturity check.
My maturity level (1 to 6): ____ · where we only "bolted it on": __________________

Step 2: Move from output to outcome (Chapter 2). Decide what the agent can do and what stays with a person.

Artifact: Human Review Matrix.
Live page: Autonomy boundary.
Task for evaluation: __________________ · decision owner: ____________

Step 3: A team with agents (Chapter 3). Define the role, access, review, escalation, and owner.

Artifact: Agent Contract + team-brain starter kit.

Step 4: A company of one (Chapter 4). Put one complete function on agents under supervision.

Step 5: An agent-based staff for an SMB (Chapter 5). Map functions against financial priority and choose where to start.

Artifact: SMB staff map + where to start checklist.
Function with the fastest cash impact: __________________

Step 6: When the customer is not human (Chapter 6). Can the buying agent find and understand you?

Live pages: Agent commerce protocols · agentic browsers.
Artifact: Can an agent see me? checklist + AI search visibility worksheet.
Where an agent cannot find or understand me: __________________

Beyond the person and the company (Chapters 7 to 10)

Chapter 7: Children: what to teach when answers become cheap · family 3C audit · AI tutor prompt · AI skills and tools for children.
Chapter 8: The new economy: Your own ladder: three materials · Who owns your ladder? · AI and the labor market.
- The thinnest material in my ladder (work / relationships / reputation): __________________
Chapter 9: Physical AI: Platform rent map · Who owns the rails?.
- My total platform rent as a share of revenue: ____%
Chapter 10: 2030 scenarios: Which world are you building? · No-regret moves · AGI claim check · Signals without fog.
- My weakest no-regret move: __________________

Final step (Chapter 11: The Change Compass)

Use a compass, not a calendar: four arrows and seven gates. Bring the conclusions above into one route. Move when a gate is passed, not because a date arrived.

WHERE arrow: Process scoring, with five questions about where an AI agent can pay off.
Worked example: IKEA through the Change Compass, a public case run through four arrows and seven gates.
Route: Change gates: Order of Moves, the printable Volume 2 capstone.
PEOPLE arrow: Learning without a box-ticking course.
By role: manager route · business route.
My process for the first round: __________________

My one-page result

Bring the route conclusions into one table. This is a business profile you can take to a team meeting or discuss with a partner.

Question	My conclusion
1. Maturity level + where we only "bolted it on"	`____` / `____________`
2. Task for evaluation + decision owner	`____________`
3. First agent: role, boundaries, owner	`____________`
5. Function with the fastest cash impact	`____________`
6. Where a customer agent cannot find me	`____________`
8. The thinnest material in my ladder	`____________`
1. Is this a rebuild or decoration?	`____`
2. What do we give to the agent, and what stays with a person?	`____`
3. First agent: role, access, review, escalation	`____`
4. Which function can become a supervised "company of one"?	`____`
5. Function with the fastest cash impact for an SMB	`____`
6. Where can a buying agent not see us?	`____`
7. What must people practice instead of replacing it with an answer?	`____`
8. Who owns our value ladder?	`____`
9. Platform rent as a share of revenue	`____`
10. No-regret move for 2030	`____`
11. First change round: process, gate, owner	`____`
10. Weakest no-regret move	`____________`
11. First-round process + nearest gate	`____________`

Use this prompt for a second opinion:

Here is my business profile from the Volume 2 Workbook for When Intelligence Became Cheap. It covers
maturity, evaluation, the first agent, the function with the fastest cash impact, agent visibility,
the value ladder, rent, no-regret moves, and the first change round. Check it for honesty. Where do
the conclusions conflict? Where am I overestimating our readiness? Which gate am I trying to skip?
Do not suggest "put AI everywhere." Ask three questions that will help me improve the first round.
[paste the table]

See a completed route in the small-business owner example and the support manager example.

Version: 2026-07-09. What changed: the minimum agent governance package and "My one-page result" were added, and internal readiness notes were removed. As Volume 2 chapters are released, the steps gain worksheets and live pages.