Before you give an AI agent the keys: five controls

Agents that can act inside business systems are now part of ordinary software. The rules for managing them have not kept up. A Deloitte survey published this year found that about three-quarters of companies plan to deploy agentic AI within two years, while only around one in five has a mature way of governing it.

• Least access. Give each agent only the systems and data its task needs.
• Limits on action. Set a ceiling on what it can approve, send or change without a person.
• Human approval for anything that cannot be undone. Payments, deletions and bulk messages to customers should wait for a yes.
• A full log. Every action recorded and easy to review.
• An off switch. One named person who can stop it immediately.

Give a new agent a narrow job and a short leash. Review its log every week for the first month. Widen its permissions only when the record shows it has earned them. This is how any sensible business treats a new member of staff, and it works for software too.

Controls are what let a business say yes to agents with confidence. With Dubai moving its private sector toward Agentic AI, the companies with clear rules will be able to adopt fastest. It is the approach we take at BWC, because automation that cannot be trusted does not get used.