AI Agents & Automation | IDC AI Unit

Implementation

AI agents for real workflows

An AI agent is not a chatbot tucked away in a corner, but a digital employee that takes over a specific process — from the inbox to the finished draft. It works in your systems, follows your rules and submits every decision to a human for approval. Relief, not replacement.

Sound familiar?

Six places where time slips away every day

Clerk sorting invoices and delivery notes at her desk

Inbox overflowing?

The shared support and info inbox fills up faster than the team can clear it — and the important request gets lost between newsletters and invoices.

Warehouse manager leafing through a stack of delivery notes

Quotes left sitting?

Sending out a quote takes half an hour, the follow-up gets forgotten in day-to-day business — and a warm lead quietly turns into a lost order.

Accountant and consultant going through a printout

Documents checked by hand?

Invoices, delivery notes and forms are opened, read and typed in field by field — monotonous work, which is exactly why mistakes happen.

Shelf with old binders

Reports rebuilt every month?

Scraping together figures from five sources, dumping them into a template, fixing the layout — the same tedious work every month, and still the doubt remains at the end.

Two colleagues arranging sticky notes on a glass wall

Requests handled twice?

Two colleagues reply to the same customer, a third request goes unanswered because everyone thought someone else was handling it — and nobody sees the overall status.

Two colleagues discussing a process at the whiteboard

Nobody knows who does what?

Who has already replied, who has followed up, what is still open? The truth lives in individual heads and inboxes — not in one place everyone can see.

What an AI agent can do

Everything a person does at a computer

An AI agent works at the computer just like an employee: it opens programs, reads what is on the screen, clicks and types. Where your software has an interface, it uses it – where it doesn't, it operates it through the user interface, just as your team does today.

Operating software

It opens your software, clicks through menus and screens and types in entries – even where there is no interface.

Working in the browser

It logs into portals, looks up information, fills in web forms and downloads documents.

Email and appointments

It reads the inbox, sorts by urgency, drafts replies and enters appointments in the calendar.

Understanding documents

It reads PDFs, invoices, delivery notes and spreadsheets, extracts the key details and checks them against your rules.

Transferring data

It transfers information from one system to the next – from the email into the CRM, from the invoice into the right folder.

Preparing reports

It collects figures from several sources, builds a report from them and has it ready at a set time.

You stay in control: the agent only works with the access you give it and submits decisions to a human for approval.

There isn't too much work — it's just done by hand in the wrong places.

Why motivated teams still drown in small tasks

The solution

An agent sits between the trigger and your systems

Office in the late afternoon, an employee heading home
The agent works where someone would otherwise have to sit today.

An AI agent is tailored to exactly one process. A trigger starts it — an incoming email, a completed form, a new appointment. The agent reads the case, accesses your existing systems (Outlook, Teams, the CRM, file storage), prepares a result and submits it to the responsible person for approval. Nothing goes out without a check. That way responsibility stays where it belongs, and the tedious work disappears.

Trigger Email / form Appointment AI agent reads & prepares Your systems Outlook Teams CRM Files Result Draft / action Human approves
The human decides and approves — the agent takes over the tedious work

We don't promise miracles or made-up percentages. An agent does exactly what you allow it to do — traceable, logged and switchable off at any time.

The process

From the current state to a working agent

Step 01

Select a process

We target a specific, recurring process — often one already identified as a candidate in the AI Audit. Start small, show visible results.

Step 02

Define rules & access

What may the agent do, and what not? We define approval points, access rights and limits — together with the people who handle the process today.

Step 03

Build & test

The agent is built and tested on real cases — at first only as a suggestion that a human reviews, so you can build trust before anything runs automatically.

Step 04

Go live

Once it runs reliably, it moves into everyday use — with logging, clear responsibility and the option to pause or adjust it at any time.

Before / After

What changes in everyday work

Today

  • The inbox is sorted and answered by hand.
  • Quotes and follow-up emails depend on individual people.
  • Receipts are read and typed in field by field.
  • Reports are rebuilt every month through laborious manual work.
  • Nobody can see at a glance what is open and what is done.

With AI agents

  • Incoming emails are pre-sorted, drafts are ready.
  • Quotes and follow-ups run reliably, regardless of holidays.
  • Receipts are read automatically; a person only confirms.
  • The monthly report is ready for approval at the push of a button.
  • A shared status shows what is in progress, open and done.

In concrete terms

Agents we typically build

Support inbox agent

Sorts, assigns and prepares replies — a human approves

Sales assistant

Creates quotes and reminds you to follow up at the right time

Mail triage

Recognizes urgency and topic, routes to the right place

Document analysis

Extracts data from invoices and forms instead of typing them in

RAG knowledge base

Answers questions from your own documents — with sources

Reporting agent

Collects figures and submits the finished report for approval

The relief

What you get out of it

An agent doesn't take work away from your team, but the work nobody likes doing: sorting, typing and chasing. The time freed up goes where people are really needed — into conversations with customers, into decisions and into the things no system can take over.

  • Recurring tedious work runs in the background — your team handles the cases that need a human mind.
  • Fewer careless mistakes, because monotonous steps no longer depend on fatigue.
  • Nothing gets left undone — not even during holidays or sick leave.
  • Every step is logged and requires approval — you stay in control.
1
Process per agent — clearly defined
24/7
ready whenever a trigger arrives
1997
IDC EDV in business since
EU
Hosting on our own infrastructure

Scope

The scope grows with your needs

One process

Home

A single, clearly defined process becomes an agent — ideal as a first step.

  • One trigger, one result
  • Connection to one system
  • Human approval built in

Multiple areas

Scale

Agents across departmental boundaries that hand tasks over to each other.

  • Cross-department processes
  • Handovers between agents
  • Foundation for the AI operating system

Price depends on effort — the scope is defined together after the AI Audit.

Frequently asked questions

In brief

Does an AI agent replace employees?

No. An agent takes over a clearly defined, recurring process — sorting, preparing, following up. Decisions and approvals stay with people. The goal is to free your team from monotonous work, leaving time for what really takes judgement and a personal touch.

Do I have to replace my systems?

No. An agent connects to what you already use — Outlook, Teams, your CRM, your file storage. We don't build a new software world, but a bridge between the trigger and your existing tools. Changes to day-to-day work are kept to a minimum.

How do I make sure nothing wrong goes out?

Every agent has defined limits and approval points. At first it only makes suggestions and a person checks them. Only once you have built trust does a step run on its own — and even then it is logged and can be switched off at any time. You stay in control at every stage of expansion.

Where is our data stored?

In the EU, on our own infrastructure. We deliberately use no third-party CDNs, and your data stays within your company. What an agent sees and does depends on the access you grant it — nothing more. Data protection has a seat at the table from day one.

Where is the best place to start?

With the AI Audit or a single process that obviously eats up time. Start small, show visible results, then expand — that is the safest route. One agent becomes a department, several departments later become an AI operating system. Nothing has to happen all at once.

Next step

Let's tackle your first process.

A short conversation is enough to see which process pays off most as your first agent.