Glossary
AI agent glossary
Plain definitions of the words that come up when an operations team adds an AI agent: what each one means, and how we use it at DH Studios.
By Drayton Highlander, industrial engineer, DH Studios
AI agent
An AI agent is software that uses a language model to carry out a task in several steps, such as reading inputs, deciding what to do next and acting in other tools, rather than only answering one question.
Agentic workflow
An agentic workflow is a business process where an AI agent does some of the steps, and people do or approve the rest.
Human in the loop
Human in the loop means a person reviews or approves an AI system's work at set points before it takes effect.
Hand-off
A hand-off is the point where work passes from an AI agent to a person, or from a person to an agent.
Run log
A run log is a written record of every step an AI agent took on a job: what it read, what it did and what it produced.
Off switch
An off switch is a control that lets the people who own an AI agent pause or stop it themselves, at any time, without calling the vendor.
Least-privilege access
Least-privilege access means giving a system only the access its job needs, and nothing more.
Intake and triage
Intake and triage is the work of receiving incoming requests, such as emails, forms, tickets or calls, sorting them by type and urgency, and sending each to the right person or queue.
Reporting rollup
A reporting rollup is a recurring report built by pulling numbers from several systems into one view, such as a daily or weekly operations report.
Baseline
A baseline is a measure of how long, or how well, the work gets done today, taken before anything changes.
The Drawing
The Drawing is DH Studios' one-page plan for an AI agent: what the agent does, who signs and what it costs, with a fixed scope and price.
Pilot
A pilot is a limited first run of an AI agent on real work, measured against a baseline, before a company commits to running it for good.
Specified. Built. Signed off.
Start with one workflow.
Book a 30-minute call. We look at one workflow together, and you leave with a yes, a no, or a smaller first step.
The first call is free. Pricing is built around your workflow.