# AI Agents That Work

> AI Agents That Work: A Practical Playbook for Designing, Governing and Scaling Agentic AI. By Anuj Agarwal and Brendan Murtagh. A practical playbook for designing, governing and scaling agentic AI, by two practitioners who build agents inside a regulated bank.

- Kindle eBook: available now on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HQ7S99RX)
- Paperback: out 20 November 2026
- Language: English (UK)
- Vendor-neutral: the method does not depend on a particular model, provider or framework.

## Core ideas
- **Human Twin Design** (Start with the work): You are learning the work, not cloning the person.
- **The OPT model** (Design the boundary): Good agent boundaries are usually discovered, not declared.
- **Minimum useful autonomy** (Control autonomy): Autonomy is earned by evidence and consequence, not by model capability alone.
- **Evals that change decisions** (Prove what changes): If you cannot evaluate the work, you do not yet control it.
- **Ownership, cost and value** (Run it as a product): The model was 4p. The outcome cost 61p. Manage the 61p.

## Pages
- [Home](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/): Overview of the book, the five core ideas, who it is for, how to buy, and FAQs.
- [8 ideas](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/ideas): Eight shareable one-slide ideas from the book, each with its own page and image.
- [Reader toolkit](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/toolkit): Free browser tools: five-gate test, cost-per-good-outcome calculator, launch checklist, Agent PRD template.
- [Free extracts](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/extracts): Three passages from the book, as printed.
- [Resources](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/resources): Curated open-source GitHub repositories for learning AI and building agents.
- [Contents](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/contents): The eight parts of the book.
- [Authors](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/authors): Biographies of Anuj Agarwal and Brendan Murtagh.

## Authors
- [Anuj Agarwal](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/authors#anuj-agarwal): Senior Director leading agentic AI and product for a major UK bank. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anujxagarwal
- [Brendan Murtagh](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/authors#brendan-murtagh): Senior Director in banking product and transformation, NatWest Group. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendan-murtagh-21632446/

## Optional
- [Full text for LLMs](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/llms-full.txt): every idea, extract, tool, FAQ, biography and resource on this site in one Markdown file.
- [Sitemap](https://anuj-agarwal-pi.vercel.app/sitemap.xml)