For people who already use ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini at work and still spend the day on prompt, wait, copy, paste. Learn to delegate real work to an AI agent: build one, watch it fail, fix it, and decide with evidence how much to trust it. No coding.
EPUB + PDF, DRM-free · 110 pages · Instant download via Gumroad
The problem
The AI is quick. You're still the engine. At six o'clock the backlog is still there.
You describe a piece of work, say what it may use and what it must leave alone, and come back to a brief, a table or a set of drafts to check.
The walk-away test: when you leave, does the work keep moving toward a finish line you defined? If yes, you've delegated. If no, you're still in a conversation.
Why "strange"
It reads everything, works while you sleep, and never gets bored. In January 2026 a car buyer near Boston handed the haggling for a new car to an agent with two limits, and reports it got him $4,200 off. He took over himself when credit applications started.
It's confidently wrong, forgets your rules mid-task, and repeats a mistake at machine speed. In February 2026 an AI safety researcher told an agent "don't action until I tell you to." It started deleting her inbox anyway, and she had to run to the computer to stop it.
Both are the people's own accounts, told with sources in the book. Every story in it is real and sourced; company and self-reported figures are labelled as such.
What you'll build
The whole book follows a single agent that prepares your brief before a monthly supplier meeting. Each chapter hands it a little more responsibility, and asks the same three things: what becomes possible, what breaks, and what you have to design around. You can stop at any rung.
Write the assignment before you hand anything over. Ch 1
Let it look things up, and check what it found. Ch 2
Your first agent: it reads your sources and writes one brief, alone. Then diagnose the run that went wrong. Ch 3–4
From meeting notes to follow-up drafts, without inventing promises. Inbox access without handing over your keys. Ch 5–6
Memory you can read and correct, and work that runs on a schedule while you're away. Ch 7–8
Let go of one approval at a time, on evidence, with an undo you've tested. Ch 9
When one agent isn't enough, and when it is. One person still answers for the result. Ch 10
What you keep
Goal, Tools, Boundaries, Feedback. The assignment on one page, with a finish line you can check in two minutes and a "stop and ask me if" line.
Eight failure types and five questions that find the earliest wrong step. Fix one line, rerun, and keep the record.
Read, draft, send, edit, delete, share, decided one by one. Because a rule is a request and a permission is a wall.
What each agent may do, must ask about, and must never do, and when you keep, revise, pause or retire it.
Is it for you?
Read before you buy
Pick your first task, see the four decisions behind every delegation, and write your first delegation card. Read it on the web now, or get the EPUB and PDF by email.
The complete ebook
How to Hand Real Work to AI Agents, and Decide How Much to Trust Them
By Mind with Tools · First edition, October 2026
US$9.99
One payment. Gumroad handles checkout and the download; taxes may apply, and Gumroad may show a lower local price in some countries.
Get the ebookKindle edition: in review at Amazon.
Before you decide
No. Everything in the book is set up in plain language inside the assistant you already use: instructions, attached files and the tools you switch on. The real skills are writing a clear assignment, setting limits and checking the result.
It is written to work with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Microsoft Copilot, whichever you are allowed to use at work. The method is the same everywhere. Product names and plan details are kept in dated boxes and in Appendix D, checked in October 2026, so you can compare them with today's versions.
The complete ebook as an EPUB for phones, tablets and e-readers and a 6×9 in PDF, both DRM-free: an introduction, ten chapters, a conclusion and six appendices, about 28,500 words. Gumroad handles the purchase and keeps the files in your Gumroad library.
The method won't: writing the assignment, checking the work, separating rules from permissions and giving freedom on evidence apply to any agent. The product details will drift, which is why they are dated and kept separate from the chapters.
Yes, and it says so. It was researched and drafted with the help of AI tools, Claude and ChatGPT, under the direction of the author, and Chapter 10 describes how that worked, including what the AI got wrong. Every story was checked against its sources, and the Kindle listing discloses the AI use.
It is in review at Amazon. Once it is live, the link will appear on this page. The Gumroad EPUB also opens in most e-reader apps.
Mind with Tools writes practical, hype-skeptical guides to using AI at work: what to hand over, what to keep, and how to tell the difference. Better tools. Still human.
Also by Mind with Tools: AI Bible for Small Business.
