Practical, opinionated writing from the senior team at Mach Lilies on agentic AI consulting, governed AI agents, and moving AI from experiments into production. No fluff, no hype. Mach speed. Lily craft.
What AI agents are, how they differ from chatbots and automation, what they can safely do in a business, and how to deploy them with human oversight and a clear audit trail.
Guide · 7 min readAgentic operations is the practice of running AI agents like production systems — designing, governing and operating bounded agent workflows that do real business work. A definition and guide.
Guide · 8 min readAgentic AI consulting helps companies design, govern and operate AI agents that run real workflows — not just advise on AI. A practical guide to what it is, how it differs from traditional AI consulting, and how to choose a consultancy.
Comparison · 6 min readGenerative AI produces content; agentic AI takes actions. A clear comparison of generative vs agentic AI, what changes when AI can act, and what it means for governance and value.
Buyer's guide · 8 min readA practical buyer's guide to choosing an AI consultancy or agentic AI partner — the questions to ask, the red flags to avoid, and how to tell genuine AI experts from slideware.
Buyer's guide · 7 min readHow AI consulting is priced — day rates, fixed-fee discovery, milestone delivery and value-based models — the factors that drive cost, and how to budget for production rather than just a pilot.
Buyer's guide · 7 min readShould you build custom AI agents, buy an off-the-shelf product, or partner to deliver? A decision framework covering control, data, differentiation, cost and governance.
Playbook · 9 min readA practical playbook for moving AI pilots into production with governed agentic workflows — why pilots stall, what production-ready means for an AI agent, and a six-step path from demo to operated workflow.
Playbook · 7 min readHow to measure the ROI of AI agents honestly — baselining manual effort, modelling time saved, error reduction and throughput, and tracking real cost and value after launch.
Guide · 7 min readWhat it means to run governed AI agents: bounded least-privilege access, human oversight, audit trails, evaluation and incident response. Why governance belongs in delivery, not as an afterthought.
Guide · 7 min readHow to design human-in-the-loop oversight for AI agents — where a person must approve, how to avoid rubber-stamping, and how to keep humans in control without killing efficiency.
Guide · 8 min readHow to secure AI agents that take actions — least-privilege access, scoped credentials, guardrails, prompt-injection defence, action logging and incident response.
Checklist · 7 min readA practical AI governance checklist for teams putting AI agents into production — inventory, risk classification, least-privilege access, human oversight, evaluation, audit trails and incident response.
Guide · 8 min readA practical, plain-English guide to the EU AI Act for teams deploying AI agents — the risk tiers, what they mean for agentic workflows, and pragmatic steps to prepare. Not legal advice.
Comparison · 6 min readAgentOps vs MLOps explained: how operating AI agents that take actions differs from operating ML models — permissions, approvals, audit trails and incident response on top of monitoring.
Comparison · 7 min readRAG vs fine-tuning explained — when to ground a model in your data with retrieval, when to fine-tune for style or format, and why most production systems combine both.
Industry guide · 7 min readHow insurance brokers use governed AI agents for renewals, claims intake, document chasing and compliance evidence — with broker approval and a full audit trail.
Industry guide · 7 min readHow accountancy practices use governed AI agents for client chasing, invoice and receipt classification, month-end close and VAT prep — with accountant approval and an audit trail.
When you're ready to move from theory to a working, governed agent, tell us the workflow you want to automate. We reply to every serious enquiry within one business day.
