Why your AI agents need a shared memory and shared rules
An agent that does not know your rules is right for everyone and wrong for you. What a shared company memory brings.
An AI agent, however well designed, only knows what it is given. Without your rules, it applies general rules. Its answers are right for everyone, and wrong for you. That is the starting point of a company memory.
What a company loses without a shared memory
- Knowledge that leaves with people: a departure, a completed project, an archived mailbox, and what was known disappears.
- Rules nobody wrote down: everyone applies their own version, and nobody can say which one is authoritative.
- Tools that answer beside the point: an agent that does not know your priorities makes decisions that are consistent… with those of another company.
What a company memory is
A company memory brings together, in one place, what makes your company work the way it does:
- The fundamentals: purpose, vision, strategy, principles, priorities, shared rules.
- The knowledge of each domain: its vocabulary, its processes, its rules, its decisions, its ways of working.
- The trade-off rules: your priorities, what is decided without a person, what is escalated.
- The rules of use: who writes, who approves, how often.
It has one particularity: it is readable by both your teams and your agents. What is written once serves both.
What it changes for agents
- Answers that are right for you: your lead times, your prices, your tone, your exceptions.
- Consistency between agents: the same vocabulary, the same priorities, no contradiction between the invoicing agent and the customer service agent.
- Fewer invented answers: an agent that answers from your sources, and knows to stay silent outside them, makes fewer mistakes. See Can an AI agent make mistakes?
- Faster set-up of the next agents: the knowledge is already there.
What it changes for teams
The same memory serves people: a newcomer finds the rules, a manager knows which version is authoritative, management sees its priorities applied. It is also protection against the loss of know-how.
When is it useful?
Not necessarily straight away. A first agent only needs the rules of its own work. A shared memory becomes useful when:
- several agents have to apply the same rules;
- several teams contradict each other on what is authoritative;
- knowledge rests on a few people, and the company is growing or changing.
It can come first, after a project, or never: it is a choice, not a prerequisite.
The condition that makes all the difference
A memory without an owner quickly becomes a forgotten document. You need a named internal lead, who keeps it alive, and an available business leader to approve the fundamentals. See The internal lead.
To go further
How this memory is concretely organised in layers: Organising company knowledge in layers. Our offer for building it, which is optional: Company Brain.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need a company memory to put a first agent into service?
No. A first agent only needs the rules of its own work, written during scoping. A shared memory becomes useful when several agents, or several teams, have to apply the same rules.
Is it yet another document base?
No, if it is well designed: it is structured, dated, kept up to date by an owner, and readable by both your teams and your agents. A base nobody looks after quickly becomes a forgotten document.
What is the Company Brain?
It is our offer for building this memory: the foundation of the company’s fundamentals and the knowledge of a first domain, with the trade-off rules and rules of use, and your agents connected. It remains optional.