The Business Times
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When should we let an autonomous AI agent do the work?

Where it pays off to deploy them is a question, and the answer is: not everywhere

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    • There is a narrow band where automation pays off. Very small tasks are not worth it, and neither are tasks with densely interdependent actions.
    • There is a narrow band where automation pays off. Very small tasks are not worth it, and neither are tasks with densely interdependent actions. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

    Daniel Liebau

    Published Sun, Jul 12, 2026 · 12:00 PM

    THE rails for a more autonomous, agentic version of e-commerce are built. Artificial intelligence agents can now purchase products and services on our behalf. Current adoption levels are low, but swiftly rising.

    The fundamental question the current AI excitement overlooks is: When is it worth handing work to an AI agent rather than a person?

    Consider a scenario involving several purchases. An AI agent that pays as it goes runs up three kinds of costs:

    Artificial IntelligenceBusiness costsfinancial technology

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