Services / Tier 5

Contractor Agents

Governed delegated operators for narrow workflows. Not autonomous AI replacements — scoped agents that do a defined job, within defined boundaries, with human approval and full observability.

What contractor agents are

A contractor agent is an AI-powered workflow operator scoped to a specific, narrow task in your operation. It takes inputs, follows a defined decision process, and produces outputs within a bounded lane — with all actions logged, reviewable, and correctable.

Think of it like a new team member who only does one job, can't make decisions outside their lane, and whose work is fully visible. Not a general-purpose AI assistant. A specific operator for a specific workflow.

Every contractor agent has a named human owner at your organization who is accountable for reviewing its outputs and approving its continued operation.

What they are not

  • Not general-purpose AI assistants with broad permissions
  • Not autonomous systems that make decisions without human approval gates
  • Not replacements for human judgment in complex or high-stakes decisions
  • Not black boxes — every action is logged and auditable
  • Not deployed without documented scope and approved decision boundaries
  • Not operated without a named human owner and review cycle

How contractor agents are governed

Defined scope document

Every contractor agent has a written scope document: what it does, what it doesn't do, what inputs it accepts, what outputs it produces, and what happens when it encounters an edge case.

Bounded decision authority

The agent can only take actions within its defined lane. It cannot access systems, data, or workflows outside its scope. Attempts to act outside scope are logged and flagged.

Full action logging

Every action the agent takes is logged with a timestamp, input, output, and confidence score. Logs are owned by the client and retained per your data governance policy.

Human approval gates

High-stakes outputs route to a human review queue before taking effect. Thresholds are set with your team and reviewed quarterly.

Named human owner

Every contractor agent has a named human owner at your organization. That person is responsible for reviewing outputs, approving continued operation, and escalating issues.

Termination protocol

Every contractor agent has a documented shutdown procedure. If the agent is performing poorly, the scope changes, or the business need goes away, it can be decommissioned cleanly.

Required before deployment

Contractor agents are an advanced service. We require the following conditions to be met before any agent is deployed to your operation:

The workflow being delegated is fully documented and understood
A working baseline automation exists or has been reviewed
Your organization has a data governance policy for AI outputs
A named human owner has been identified and agrees to the review cadence
Acceptance criteria for agent performance have been defined and agreed
A staging environment is available for testing before production deployment
An incident response plan exists if the agent produces incorrect output
Client has completed at least one prior Norsewave engagement

Pricing

Contractor agent engagements are priced in two parts: a setup fee for scoping, building, and validating the agent, and a monthly fee for ongoing governance, monitoring, and support.

Setup
Custom

Scoped based on workflow complexity, integration requirements, and governance infrastructure needed. Quoted after a full scoping session.

Monthly
Custom

Monthly governance and monitoring fee based on agent scope and review cadence. Quoted alongside setup and agreed before engagement begins.

Interested in contractor agents?

This is an advanced service. We'll need to understand your current workflow maturity, governance posture, and operational context before scoping. Start with a diagnostic.

Book a Diagnostic