With great power comes great responsibility

Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is here – digital teammates that don’t just follow instructions, but learn, adapt and get things done on their own.  

From streamlining complex workflows to drafting client proposals, these systems are reshaping how businesses operate. 

But the real challenge isn’t just what AI can do, it’s how we deploy it safely, securely and responsibly. 

In this article, Vladimir Vasilev, Digital Lead at Baker Tilly in the Dominican Republic, sets out five principles for successful AI agent deployment and shares strategies to keep agentic AI working for you – not against you.

AI agents have huge potential, but only if deployed the right way.  

Here are five principles every organisation should follow. 

1. Clarity: Clearly define the specific purpose, goals and functionalities of your agents. Avoid deploying vague or overly generalised AI agents without a clear objective.  
    

2. Scalability: Prepare AI agents to handle growing user interactions without sacrificing performance. Always consider the impact of increased demand before deployment.  
    

3. Contextual awareness: Equip AI agents with robust memory management and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities. Avoid using AI agents that frequently lose track of user context or conversation threads.  
    

4. Monitoring and feedback: Implement continuous monitoring and gather user feedback for ongoing performance evaluation. Don’t rely solely on initial deployment metrics; regular checks and user insights are essential.  
    

5. Iterative improvement: Regularly refine and update your AI agents based on real-world usage and data-driven insights. Deployment should not be seen as the final step. Continuously improving the system is vital.  

Some organisations are using small AI agents for simple tasks like sending onboarding emails, handling customer enquiries, pulling data from systems, or running basic analysis.  

But here’s the thing: most of these jobs could be done faster, cheaper and just as effectively with traditional automation. 

The real power of AI agents shows up when complexity kicks in.  

Imagine onboarding at scale: policies vary by country, role, seniority or regulatory environment. One new hire needs different compliance documents while another needs unique IT access and another has separate benefits requirements. Suddenly, static workflows start to break. This is where adaptive AI agents shine, interpreting complex rules and tailoring actions in real time. 

But even then, AI isn’t always the answer.  

When you’re dealing with very large datasets, AI agents can become computationally expensive, sometimes outweighing the efficiency gains. 

The bottom line? Deploy AI agents where they add real value – in complex, variable, high-stakes environments.  

Large Language Models (LLMs), the engines behind many AI agents, are powerful but imperfect.  

They can still ‘hallucinate’, fabricating information that looks convincing but may be inaccurate. That’s a big risk when confidential client information or regulated data is involved. 

So, what does smart AI adoption look like?  

It means putting controls in place from day one. 

• Role-based access control: Strictly limit agent access to only the information necessary for each assigned task. 

• Data security and encryption: Apply robust encryption practices to safeguard sensitive data both at rest and in transit. 

• Operational traceability: Ensure that every action taken by an AI agent is fully logged and monitored to meet compliance and audit standards.   

• Privacy-first design: Deploy private or on-premise models where needed, minimise data use and align retention policies with client and regulatory requirements. 

The potential of agentic AI is huge, but so are the risks if businesses move fast without thinking smart.  

The winners will be those who embrace innovation with discipline, pair ambition with accountability, and who make decisions on usage based on complexity, scale and cost, not just because AI is the shiny new tool on the block.