Speed
Agents remove the waiting between tasks and execute work in parallel.
Chapters 05–06
Redesign the process. Don't speed up the old one.
One customer request, two process designs. See where waiting, handoffs and coordination disappear, and why that changes the economics of work.
05. Process reinvention
Don't Make the Old Process Faster. Design a Better Process.
10sequential steps4handoffs or manual updates2waiting points
Sequential workWaitingHandoffsManual coordinationFragmented systemsRepetitive work
6activities run at once0handoffs on routine cases1handoff, for exceptions only
Parallel executionFewer handoffsDynamic routingReduced waitingAutonomous routine executionHuman exception handling
Exhibit 2 · The same customer request, two process designsIllustrative
The breakthrough does not come from automating every task. It comes from redesigning how the entire process creates value.
06. The economics of work
Why agents change the economics of work
Adaptability
Processes respond to changing data and circumstances as they happen.
Personalization
Workflows adapt to the individual customer, employee or situation.
Elasticity
Digital capacity scales up and down with demand.
Resilience
Agents detect disruptions, reroute work and escalate exceptions.
Growth
Agents can support new services, products and revenue models.
Agentic AI is not only a productivity technology. It can become an operating-model technology.