The ideas
Real ways people are putting agents to work.
Written by people, for people. Each account names the setting, the agents observed doing the work, what actually changed, and what to watch for. Every piece carries a byline and a date.
8 ideas
Customer service
Answer the order-status question once, properly
Most service teams answer the same question several thousand times a month. That is the first thing to hand over, and the easiest to measure.
Founder desk · Updated 28 July 2026 · 6 min
Setting
A 40-person logistics firm, one shared inbox, two service staff
Agents observed
Intercom Fin · Zendesk AI agents · Salesforce Agentforce
Admin and operations
Close the month without the invoice pile
Invoice matching is the clearest case of work that nobody defends. Start on the clean path, then move to exceptions with your auditor in the room.
Founder desk · Updated 1 August 2026 · 7 min
Setting
A mid-market manufacturer, three finance staff, ~1,400 invoices a month
Agents observed
UiPath agentic automation · Microsoft Copilot Studio agents · Rossum
Analytics
Give the analyst back Tuesday
Reporting cycles eat the week. Automate the preparation, keep the interpretation, and be precise about which is which.
Founder desk · Updated 11 July 2026 · 5 min
Setting
A B2B software company, one analyst, a weekly commercial review
Agents observed
Databricks Genie · Snowflake Cortex Analyst · Hex Magic
Content creation
Stop writing the first draft
The draft is not where the value is. Hand it over, and put the recovered hours into the thing a model cannot do: having a point of view.
Founder desk · Updated 30 June 2026 · 5 min
Setting
A four-person content team at a professional services firm
Agents observed
Writer · Anthropic Claude · Jasper
Inside sales
Research the account before the call, not during it
Sellers spend about a quarter of their time selling. The rest is research and admin — and that is the part to hand over first.
Founder desk · Updated 22 July 2026 · 6 min
Setting
A six-person inside sales team selling into regulated industries
Agents observed
Clay · Gong Engage · HubSpot Breeze agents
Marketing
One campaign, nine markets, one voice
Adaptation is the repetitive part of marketing. Hand over the variants; keep the judgement about what is worth saying.
Founder desk · Updated 18 June 2026 · 5 min
Setting
A two-person marketing team supporting nine European markets
Agents observed
Adobe Firefly Services · Jasper · HubSpot Breeze agents
Admin and operations
The freed hour is a decision, not a result
Workers report saving around eleven hours a week and losing over six to managing the tools. What happens to the difference is a management choice.
Founder desk · Updated 2 August 2026 · 4 min
Setting
Cross-cutting
Admin and operations
Pilot on the exceptions, not the clean path
Demos run on tidy data. Your business does not. Choose the pilot that tells you something you did not already know.
Founder desk · Updated 5 July 2026 · 4 min
Setting
Cross-cutting