Definition
In-House Agent
Kindling Solutions's smaller entry point: one AI role installed to solve one defined problem.
From the episode “Two Purple Belts on Scaling Startups With AI, Stoicism, and Cold Plunges”Hear it on the podcast1 episode
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Related terms in Agents & Automation
Human AI TeamThe near-future organizational unit in which AI is a genuine collaborator integrated into daily work — not a tool occasionally consulted. Feedback flows in both directions: humans evaluate AI outputs, AI evaluates human reasoning and approach, and there may be an AI evaluating how well the human evaluates AI. Geoff's view: the teams that win in the next decade will be the ones who redesign around this model — not just buying tools, but genuinely reinventing how humans and AI work together to achieve outcomes neither could reach alone.Human in the loop (HITL)An AI setup where a person reviews, corrects, or approves the system's work as part of the process.Human-in-the-Loop AIAn AI system design pattern in which humans remain involved in the workflow to review, correct, or approve AI outputs before they drive consequential actions - rather than operating fully autonomously. Human-in-the-loop is distinct from fully automated AI (where no human reviews outputs) and from purely human-operated workflows (where AI provides no assistance). Mehul Shah's key refinement: the goal is to keep humans in the loop for decisions while removing them from the critical path of execution. The human should not be the bottleneck who processes every document - that is the work AI automates. The human should be the final authority who reviews flagged items and makes the consequential calls.HyperautomationAn earlier wave that combined RPA, workflow tools, and basic AI to automate as many processes as possible. Now considered a precursor to agentic automation.Knowledge Base TrainingThe process of feeding audio recordings, sales scripts, and objection handling examples into an AI agent so it adopts the cadence, tone, and approach of a specific human salesperson.Knowledge Worker AutomationThe application of AI to tasks historically performed by white-collar professionals who work with information rather than physical materials - underwriters, analysts, lawyers, accountants, researchers, estimators. Unlike factory automation (which replaces physical labor) or earlier software automation (which replaced rule-based clerical tasks), knowledge worker automation targets judgment-adjacent tasks: reading documents, extracting information, summarizing findings, routing decisions, and populating systems. Mehul Shah's framing: the goal is not to replace the knowledge worker's judgment but to remove the tedious, error-prone, high-volume execution work from their critical path - freeing them to apply their expertise to the decisions that actually require it.Lifecycle Agentic FlowEhsan Mirdamadi's term for AI tools that span the entire software development lifecycle: writing code, committing to repos, running code reviews, debugging, and iterating. Distinguished from point solutions that assist at one step. Devin is the primary example. Designed for engineering teams who already have architectural context and a development workflow; not designed for non-technical founders who need requirements generation and full-stack scaffolding.llms.txt and agents.mdFiles on your site that tell AI agents who you are and how to interact with your catalog. Shopify now ships defaults for both.