---
id: "framework-three-responses"
type: "framework"
source_timestamps: ["§ Three Ways to Respond"]
tags: ["deployment-strategy", "change-management"]
related: ["claim-agent-insertion-fails", "concept-implicit-organization"]
steps: ["\\\"Agent insertion: Dropping agents into existing workflows", "hoping the implicit organization adapts (it doesn't).\\\"", "\\\"Naive reengineering: Redesigning around agent capabilities but building strictly on the documented process", "recreating blind spots faster.\\\"", "\\\"Informed reengineering: Mapping the implicit organization first", "then designing new workflows to accomplish those undocumented outcomes deliberately.\\\""]
speakers: ["K. Sudhir"]
sources: ["agentic"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-agentic"
originDay: 6
articleStem: "hbr-new-26-agentic-systems-implicit-rules"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/how-to-design-agentic-systems-around-the-implicit-rules-that-govern-your-company"
sourceTitle: "How to Design Agentic Systems Around the Implicit Rules that Govern Your Company"
---
# Three Responses to Agentic AI Deployment

Organizations typically choose one of three paths when deploying AI agents; **only the third succeeds.**

1. **Agent insertion** — drop agents into existing workflows, hoping the [[concept-implicit-organization]] adapts. It doesn't.
2. **Naive reengineering** — redesign around agent capabilities but build strictly on the [[concept-documented-organization]], recreating the firm's blind spots *faster*.
3. **Informed reengineering** — map the implicit organization first (via [[framework-surface-implicit-layer]]), then design new workflows to accomplish those undocumented outcomes *deliberately*.

Why the first two fail is argued in [[claim-agent-insertion-fails]]. The canonical exemplar of informed reengineering is [[entity-ramp-d26|Ramp]], whose expense agents escalate the toughest 10–15% of edge cases to human teachers. The open cost question is [[question-measuring-implicit-roi]]: informed reengineering is slower and more expensive, and the source offers no ROI framework for it.


## Related across articles
- [[concept-agent-first-rewiring]]
- [[framework-gen-ai-deployment]]