Agentic Workflow Launch Checklist (2026)

Use this checklist to take a single AI agent workflow from concept to production. It’s optimized for B2B products where the agent can read/write real systems (CRM, ticketing, billing, code, infra).

1) Pick the workflow wedge
- Choose ONE repeatable job (e.g., “refund request triage” or “quote creation”).
- Define the unit of work and success condition (e.g., ‘refund completed’ with correct amount and policy compliance).
- Confirm volume: target at least 200 tasks/month to learn quickly.

2) Define ROI in dollars
- Baseline today’s cost: minutes per task × fully loaded hourly rate.
- Set a target: e.g., 30% cycle-time reduction OR $10k/month labor savings.
- Decide the economic unit: $ per completed task, not messages.

3) Map risk tiers
- Low risk: drafts, summaries, tagging.
- Medium risk: updates to records, internal notifications.
- High risk: refunds, permissions, deploys, outbound customer commitments.
- For each tier, specify whether approval is required.

4) Design the workflow state machine
- States: pending → in_progress → blocked → needs_approval → completed → reverted.
- Ensure every state has an owner and a timeout.
- Define escalation paths (who gets paged or assigned).

5) Build tool contracts
- For every tool call: typed schema, validation, timeouts, idempotency key.
- Include a “dry_run” mode for shadow testing.
- Log tool inputs/outputs with redaction of secrets/PII.

6) Evidence and grounding
- Require citations for any claim that affects money/access.
- Store “evidence objects” (record IDs, URLs, query results) alongside outcomes.
- If evidence is missing, force escalation (don’t guess).

7) Evaluation harness
- Create 50–300 golden tasks with expected outcomes.
- Track: success rate, policy violation rate, average cost per task, tool failure rate.
- Re-run evals weekly and on every agent change (prompt/tool/retrieval/model).

8) Release strategy
- Start with shadow mode (no execution) for 1–2 weeks.
- Canary release: 5% of low-risk tasks, then 25%, then 100%.
- Add rollback-first: reversible actions with a defined window (e.g., 30 minutes).

9) Governance defaults (enterprise-ready)
- SSO (SAML/OIDC), RBAC scopes, per-action attribution.
- Immutable audit logs: plan → tool calls → approvals → diffs.
- Retention controls (7/30/365 days) and export to SIEM.

10) Monetization and packaging
- Price on outcomes: per resolved ticket/invoice/refund (define ‘resolved’ precisely).
- Add a platform fee for governance + connectors.
- Offer spend caps and ‘no-charge-on-failure’ rules to reduce buyer anxiety.

Exit criteria for “Production Ready”
- Success rate ≥ agreed threshold (e.g., 85% on golden tasks).
- Policy violations ≤ agreed threshold (e.g., <0.5%).
- Cost per successful task within budget (e.g., ≤ $0.25).
- Audit logs and rollback verified end-to-end.