Measure attention removed, not agent activity
Give one agent one complete job, one definition of done, and one approval checkpoint, then count interruptions and review time.
What matters today
Evaluate an AI agent by completed steps, interruptions, repair time, and attention hours removed instead of runtime or visible activity.
Key points
- Agent value equals baseline human attention minus briefing, steering, approval, review, correction, and maintenance time.
- Elapsed runtime, tabs opened, and steps logged do not measure the attention a finished job gives back.
- A useful pilot covers one bounded recurring job with observable completion rules and one approval checkpoint.
- Completion rate, intervention count, and defect escape rate expose workflows that merely shift effort downstream.
- Three comparable runs provide a better keep, narrow, revise, or retire decision than one unusually clean pilot.
The executive summary remains public for search engines and AI answer systems. Subscriber-only sections are marked separately on the page.
Article roadmap
What you will learn
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How to choose one complete multistep job for Grok Bot or Claude Cowork
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How to write a definition of done that survives review
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Where to place one approval checkpoint without creating constant supervision
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How to calculate attention hours removed from a real baseline
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How to decide whether to keep, revise, or retire the workflow
Elena, a revenue executive, spends part of every Friday cleaning the same 25 open CRM records. She reads recent email, checks meeting notes, identifies stale stages, updates next steps, and sends a short exception list to sales leaders. The work takes 95 minutes of focused attention even though each individual action is simple.
The pilot looks impressive on screen. The agent opens the CRM, searches messages, visits account pages, and produces a long activity log. Elena still spends 70 minutes correcting fields, answering questions, and rebuilding the exception list. All that motion gives her back only 25 minutes.
That difference is the experiment. Treat Grok Bot or Claude Cowork like a junior colleague for one bounded job, with a clear definition of done and one approval checkpoint. The score measures human time removed after review, not the agent's visible motion.
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