Every business process decomposes into four function types.
Code, Generative, Agentic, Human. Composed into workflows with goals and key results. Humans hold the gates.
CodeFunctionDeterministic. Same input, same output, every time. Validation, pricing math, settlement, ledgers.
GenerativeFunctionA model produces content or structure: a draft, a summary, a classification. Reviewed, then used.
AgenticFunctionAn agent pursues a goal across steps and tools: qualify, follow up, negotiate, schedule, escalate.
HumanFunctionA person acts where the law or the counterparty requires a person. Authorize. Sign. Pay. Notarize.
Subject, predicate, object.
Every function is a sentence. The subject and object are typed nouns; the predicate is the verb. A workflow is a sequence of sentences, and the gate list is the set of sentences whose subject must be a person.
$.Opportunity.desk.Deal
$.Buyer.sign.Deal
$.Notary.notarize.Title
Humans at authorize, sign, pay, notarize.
The split is decided at qualification, not discovered in production. Each process is censused into its meterable core, its relationship capital, its credential-gated fraction, and its physical residue. Agents take the core. Licensed humans keep the gates. method
This is why a NewCo can be separate and still lawful: the statutory acts never left the people entitled to perform them.
Where the method shows up.
- Intake and Thesis. The census decides whether there is enough meterable core to build on. If there is not, we decline.
- Build. The workflows are the working software. Surfaces are agent-native from day one.
- Edge. The gate list names the licenses the NewCo must hold itself.
- Launch. The NewCo’s unit of account is metered on work done, never per seat, and differs from the anchor’s.