Explore business opportunities

An enterprise that wants to use agents asks two questions first. Where can an agent do useful work? And how does a process change when it does? This section answers both in the same way for three industries. Pick an industry and see its estate: the systems it runs in each of the fourteen layers. See the use cases that sit on that estate. Then follow one worked example. It walks through the process as it runs today, step by step. Then it walks through the same process with agents.

Pick an industry

Each industry page is built the same way. It starts with the estate per layer: the systems a typical organisation runs in each layer. It then places the use cases on that estate. It ends with the rules that bind the industry. In healthcare, clinical decisions stay with clinicians. In energy, agents read plant data but never act on control or safety systems. In utilities, a trained person decides anything about hardship, disconnection or a payment plan.

Energy and utilities overlap. Here, energy starts with producing energy and resources. Utilities starts with running networks and essential services. An integrated company can use both pages.

Follow a worked example

Each worked example follows the same order. It names the systems the work touches, layer by layer. It shows today's process as numbered steps, then the process with agents. It says what each agent reads and writes, and who approves in which system. It ends with where the agent sits. That means its answers to the four questions and its tier on the risk profile. It also means how freely it may act under the autonomy contract.

Take an idea to a decision

The first three pages below are step 3 of the seven steps on Start here. The fourth belongs to step 7, when one working agent grows into many.

Evidence and limits

The work maps lean on frameworks that describe work before any AI. APQC publishes process frameworks for healthcare providers and utilities. WHO's digital-health classification sorts digital uses by health need. EPA's Effective Utility Management guidance helps utilities review outcomes across their service. Sources reviewed 18 September 2026.

The maps are original teaching aids. They do not reproduce a standard or certify an agent design. A working process still needs named owners, local requirements and an evaluation.

Next step

Pick a first task with the five checks on choose where to start.