Is an agent safe for customer email?

Outbound from an AI agent stays behind approval until evals are boring. Internal drafts can move faster.

Which model does the agent use?

Whatever fits the job and your data rules. Agent architecture matters more than the LLM brand.

Can the AI agent use our APIs?

Yes, with scoped credentials. We do not give the agent the master key “for convenience”.

How do we know the agent works?

Golden tasks it must pass, plus traces in production.

How long does AI agent development take?

A narrow internal agent can be weeks after the playbook is clear. Broad access is a longer, riskier programme.

What does it cost to run an agent?

Tokens plus tool calls. We design budgets so a loop cannot run up a surprise bill.

Do we need multiple agents?

Usually no. One constrained AI agent per job. Swarms are a complexity tax.

Can it take payments or refunds?

Only behind a human gate unless you explicitly accept the risk in writing. Default is no.

What if we only need a chatbot?

We will say so. An AI agent is the wrong shape for FAQ deflection.

150+ projects delivered for UK and international brands

AI Agents Development in London

Q: Do you operate the agent after launch?

Yes. Traces, failures and playbook changes are the maintenance.

AI agent development for London businesses that need multi-step work — search, update, draft, check — with limits, logs and a stop condition.

Chat on WhatsApp

AI agent development for London businesses that need multi-step work — search, update, draft, check — with limits, logs and a stop condition.

Start Your AI Agent

AI agents with tools, not a longer chat

AI agents built to complete jobs, not ramble

Design Dev builds AI agents when a chatbot is not enough: the agent must use tools, follow a procedure, and stop. We design permissions, evals and kill-switches. An agent without constraints is a confident intern with admin access.Tool allowlists, traces and a human gate on send, pay and delete. That is AI agent development — not a longer prompt.

Tool-using AI agents

Search, ticket, CRM, calendar — only the APIs you approve for the agent.

Multi-step agent playbooks

The agent runs a procedure with checks, not a single prompt hoping for the best.

AI agent guardrails

Budgets, allowlists, and “never do this” encoded — not in a slide.

Agent observability

Every tool call logged so you can see what the AI agent did yesterday.

A clear AI agent process from job description to production

Agent job & risk

What success looks like, what the AI agent must never touch.

Tools & agent permissions

Least privilege. No “here is the whole Google Drive” for the agent.

Playbook design

Steps, retries, escalation from the agent to a human.

Agent eval harness

Golden tasks the AI agent must pass before production.

Shadow then live agent

Watch the agent, then give it a narrow production scope.

An AI agent is software with a model in the loop

If you cannot write the procedure, you cannot govern an AI agent. We start with the playbook and the tools, then wrap a model around the steps that need language.Design Dev ships agents with logs, limits and human escalation — UK operations cannot run on vibes.

Explicit tool allowlists for the agent
Step budgets and timeouts
Human approval on irreversible agent actions
Eval tasks before an agent goes live
Audit logs of agent tool calls
Narrow production scope first
Clear stop conditions
Named owner for the agent

Complete AI agent capabilities

Constrained AI agents for defined jobs — tools you approve, logs you can audit, a stop condition.

Internal ops AI agents

Playbooks over tickets, docs and admin tools.

Research AI agents

Gather and summarise with citations to sources you trust.

Triage AI agents

Classify and route; humans send the customer-facing message.

CRM assistant agents

Draft next steps; write-back only when the agent is allowed.

Support playbook agents

Follow the runbook; escalate when it does not fit.

Lead-research agents

Enrich and brief — no unsupervised outreach from the agent.

Agent eval & tracing

See why the AI agent chose a tool.

Agent permission design

Scopes, secrets, environments for the agent.

Human approval gates

Especially when the agent would send, pay or delete.

Agent production hardening

Retries, timeouts, cost caps so a loop cannot run the bill.

Multi-agent only when earned

Most briefs need one constrained agent, not a swarm.

AI agent retainers

Traces, failures and playbook changes are the maintenance.

Ready for an AI agent with a job description and a kill switch?

Speak with Design Dev about AI agents that use tools you approve — and stop when they should.

Start Your AI Agent

WhatsApp Us

AI agents across key industries

Industry focus

Professional Services

Research and matter-prep agents with citations and a partner on send.

Research agents
Matter prep
CRM drafts
Human send

Discuss your project

Why Design Dev

A London team that treats AI agents as production software

Design Dev builds AI agents for teams who want a procedure executed, not a personality. Permissions, evals and logs are non-negotiable.If a chatbot or a Zap is enough, we will not upsell an agent with admin keys.

150+

Projects delivered

Years experience

UK+

London & worldwide

Start Your AI Agent

A London team that treats AI agents as production software

Strategy, design and engineering for brands that need a website that performs.

Job description first

An AI agent without a written job and stop condition is an incident waiting.

Least-privilege tools

The agent gets the APIs it needs. Not the master key “for convenience”.

Evals before production

Golden tasks the agent must pass. Demos are not evidence.

Traces you can read

Yesterday’s tool calls. If you cannot audit the agent, it is not production.

Technologies we work with

OpenAI

Python

Laravel

PHP

React

JavaScript

MySQL

HubSpot

Node.js

WordPress

Stripe

Figma

What clients say

Design Dev transformed our e-commerce platform. Their team was efficient, responsive, and delivered a stunning layout that doubled our conversion rate within a month.

Sarah Jenkins

Vauxhall Marketing - Shopify Development

An absolute pleasure to work with. They understood our brand identity perfectly and designed a clean, user-friendly SaaS platform that our clients love.