Platform
A worker,
not a tool.
Most sentences containing the phrase AI agent mean a chatbot. This is a different category, and the difference is what has to be built.
Seven properties
What a digital worker is.
- 01A roleA job description written in your organisation's own language. What the work is, what finished looks like, and who it answers to. Not a list of features.
- 02A managerA named human who is accountable for its work. Somebody's name sits beside it on the chart.
- 03A level of authoritySome things it does alone. Some things it may only propose, and a person signs. Some things it may never touch.
- 04Your proceduresIt follows your procedures, not generic best practice. It works the way your organisation actually works, exceptions included.
- 05Your recordsIt works on the real records, in place. No copy, no staging ground, no parallel version of the truth.
- 06A record it leavesEvery action, who authorised it, and what it was not permitted to do.
- 07SupervisionIt can be onboarded, supervised, corrected and retired, the way a person can. Judgement inside stated limits, reviewed like anyone else's.
What it is not
Four things a digital worker gets mistaken for.
The distinction is worth being exact about, because it changes what has to be built.
- A chatbot
- A chatbot answers. A worker acts, and signs for it.
- Automation
- Automation follows a fixed script and breaks when reality differs. A worker exercises judgement inside stated limits.
- A tool
- You operate a tool. A worker operates on your behalf.
- A consultant
- You do not hire Foundable. You hire a worker Foundable built.
The scope
The department you
could not afford to staff.
The desk nobody had time to cover. The shift that went unwatched. The reconciliation that waits until quarter end because it always waits until quarter end.
The work exists whether or not anyone has time for it. That is the work a digital worker takes.
Worker walkthrough