Technology is a route, not the starting point.
When a team begins with “where can we deploy an agent?”, the solution is already biased. A more useful first question is: what operating consequence matters, what prevents the workflow from producing it today, and what is the least-complex intervention that changes that condition responsibly?
Use five explicit decisions.
Stop when the opportunity is weak or premature. Simplify when ownership, waste, policy, or data is the constraint. Activate when the institution already owns the needed capability. Compose when the result requires several approved systems to work as one path. Build only where a material gap remains.
A no-build answer is not a failed engagement.
It can prevent custom software from encoding a broken process, keep a model away from a decision it should not make, or reveal that a configuration change will produce the value faster. The decision should be judged by operating value and risk—not by the amount of technology shipped.