Agent outsourcing: outsourced agents instead of outsourced people
With Workforce Aginies, roles such as iOS developer, business analyst, accountant and test engineer are hired as agents. This page explains the model, the roles, the work log, the engagement model, pricing and governance.
Updated: September 2026What is the model?
The classic outsourcing model sells person-months: a vendor gives you a developer, an analyst or an accountant; you pay by the hour or by the month. In agent outsourcing an agent holds the same role. It gets accounts in your tools (Jira, Git, ERP, CRM), reports to your team and writes its tasks to the work log. Decisions stay with your approver; a named team lead on the Aginies side manages the agent.
- Starting takes days: role spec, access, a two-week shadow period.
- Knowledge stays in the workspace: the next agent starts with the same test corpus and connections.
- Traceability is a work log, not a timesheet: task, output, hour-equivalent, quality, approval, cost.
- Scaling takes minutes: a second agent of the same role; when demand drops, capacity and invoice drop.
Role catalogue
The catalogue holds twelve roles today; each is an agent spec: what it does, where it works, which outputs it produces, which KPIs track it, where human approval is required. Roles outside the catalogue are defined with the Autonomous Agent within days in a discovery session.
| Role | Replaces | Example output | Human control |
|---|---|---|---|
| iOS Developer Agent | Outsourced iOS developer | Tested PR, story points closed | Every PR human-reviewed; deployment approved |
| Backend Developer Agent | Outsourced backend developer | Endpoints, migrations, integration tests | Schema changes and production deployment approved |
| QA Engineer Agent | Outsourced tester | Regression run, evidenced bugs, coverage report | Release go / no-go with the release manager |
| DevOps / SRE Agent | Outsourced DevOps engineer | Pipeline changes, resolved incidents, cost reports | Production infrastructure changes approved |
| Business Analyst Agent | Outsourced business analyst | Ready stories, acceptance criteria, process maps | The product owner approves the stories |
| Data Analyst Agent | Outsourced data analyst | Reports, dashboards, data-quality findings | Externally shared reports approved |
| Accountant Agent | Outsourced accountant | Entries, reconciliations, close tasks | Entries with the accountant’s approval; filings with people |
| Procurement Specialist Agent | Outsourced procurement specialist | RFQs, matched invoices, savings reports | Order approval and supplier selection with the manager |
| Customer Support Rep Agent | Outsourced contact-centre agent | Tickets resolved, first-contact resolutions | Refunds and above-limit actions approved; 10% sampling |
| Sales Development Rep Agent | Outsourced SDR | Qualified leads, meetings booked | External outreach always human-approved |
| Recruiter Agent | Outsourced recruiter | Candidates screened, interviews scheduled | Screening and offer decisions with HR |
| Contract Analyst Agent | Outsourced legal assistant | Contracts reviewed, redlines, summaries | Every redline with counsel approval |
The work log: what it did and how much
Every task is a row in the work log. The row carries: ticket or story id, start and finish, the concrete output (PR, report, entry, ticket), hour-equivalent (estimated human time for the same work), quality (review result, rework, check-family scores), approval (who, when, rationale) and cost (tokens, tool calls, model).
- Daily: work log and approval queue; your team lead sees what awaits approval.
- Weekly: timesheet, KPIs and quality; in the same shape as a classic outsourcing report, but per task.
- Monthly: invoice, review and scale decision; invoice lines are produced from the work log.
Engagement model: five steps
- Role scoping: the job description becomes an agent spec (tasks, tools, outputs, KPIs, approval points).
- Access and onboarding: the agent gets accounts in your tools; SSO, roles, read / write permissions, data boundaries.
- Shadow period (two weeks): every output reviewed by a person; mistakes added to the test corpus.
- Sampled review: after the quality threshold, 10% sampling and threshold-based approval; the kill-switch always on.
- Monthly review and scale: work log, KPIs and cost read together; the role is widened, added to or ended.
Responsibility is clear at every step: role scoping and review are shared between you and the Aginies team lead; access belongs to IT and security; review and approval to your team.
Commercial model
| Model | How it works | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Agent-month | A fixed monthly fee per role; unlimited tasks, defined KPIs and SLA. | Roles with continuous workload |
| Output-based | Fee per merged PR, resolved ticket or processed invoice; the work log is the invoice line. | Variable or project-based work |
| Agent pod | Several roles + an Aginies team lead; works like a product team. | Teams that want end-to-end delivery |
There are no list prices on the site; pricing is set together in discovery by role, volume and approval intensity. The customer owns the outputs and the knowledge produced; contracts can be ended monthly and the test corpus stays with the customer on exit.
Governance and security
- The agent works in your tenant and your tools; code and data never leave.
- Read / write permission per tool; every step over threshold goes to approval (approval matrix on the Security page).
- Approver and rationale recorded for every output; audit export in CSV / JSON.
- Kill-switch: immediate stop per role or task; a rollback plan on every write.
- A named Aginies team lead: weekly planning, monthly review, first response.