Depth 3 moves people from reviewing every item to supervising a stream. When an agent executes routine work within bounds, the skills that matter are defining what counts as routine, sampling actions already taken, reading the record for patterns, spotting drift before it causes harm, handling the exceptions the agent holds, and knowing what happens when a certificate lapses.
What changes at depth 3?
At depth 2, the agent drafts and a person sends. Every action passes through human hands, so review is the main skill. At depth 3, the agent executes routine work within bounds on its own: issuing a small refund, booking a standard appointment, matching a payment, renewing an unchanged policy. People no longer see each action before it happens.
That is a real shift in how a team works. The question changes from "is this draft right?" to "is the agent still doing the right things, and are the bounds still right?" Depth 3 must be earned on the organisation's own cases through certification, and the role's ceiling caps it; the lower wins.
Which skills matter most?
- Defining routine. Someone must write down exactly what the agent may do alone: the request types, the value limits, the conditions that make a case non-routine. Vague definitions produce surprises.
- Sampling allowed actions. Teams used to reviewing held items must also check a sample of what the agent did alone. Without sampling, errors are invisible until a customer complains.
- Reading the record. Every verdict is filed with the bound that decided it. People need to read trends: volumes by verdict, changes in the deciding bound, items that came close to a limit.
- Spotting drift. Conditions change. A new product, a policy update or a seasonal pattern can make yesterday's routine wrong today. Drift is checked by the stable gate, one of the seven Attest gates, but people often see it first.
- Handling exceptions well. At depth 3 the held items are the hard ones. Reviewers see fewer, harder cases and need more judgement per case.
- Understanding lapses. Certificates last 90 days. A run that clears no depth drops the agent to depth 1 the same day, and all its routine work returns to people. Teams need a fallback plan.
What stays with people at depth 3?
| The agent at depth 3 | People |
|---|---|
| Executes routine work within bounds | Define and review what counts as routine |
| Holds anything outside those bounds | Decide the held cases |
| Files every action in the record | Sample, read trends and investigate anomalies |
| Drops to depth 1 on a run that clears no depth | Absorb the work and fix the cause |
Moving money or taking hard-to-undo actions is depth 4, which needs different skills; see what skills people need at depth 4. The skills that design and certify a depth 3 agent are in what skills an AI agent builder needs.
What does good depth 3 supervision look like?
Take a utility's billing team. Its agent has earned depth 3 for correcting meter-read errors under a set value and issuing small goodwill credits. The team lead samples 40 allowed actions a week. One week she notices several corrections for customers on a new tariff, each just under the value limit. Individually they look fine.
She checks the record: the new tariff's rules were added to the agent's sources, but a rounding rule was missing, so the agent was correcting bills that were in fact right. She raises it with the builder, who fixes the source. The next Attest run includes new-tariff cases. Without sampling, the team would have learned about it from complaints.
Which controls support people at depth 3?
A written definition of routine for each capability. A sampling plan. Indicators from the record with owners. A fallback rota for lapses. Two-person rules saved for what cannot be undone, as argued in two people should approve what cannot be undone. A team can map who holds which skills using the skills matrix template for an AI agent team. More on the wider shift is in the skills that matter when agents act alone on routine work, and the role map is in AI agent skills by role.
Where the Academy fits
Depth 3 supervision is central to the Operator track at Pryme Intelligence Academy. Its modules on reading the workspace, keeping knowledge current and running the rhythm cover sampling, drift and lapses. A business can adopt the practice of granting depth 3 oversight rights only to people with a current Certified Pryme Operator certificate.
Questions people ask
How much should we sample at depth 3?
Enough to see each type of routine action regularly. Start high after certification and reduce as confidence grows, but never stop.
Who should define routine?
The process owner, with the risk owner's approval and input from the people who handle exceptions.
Can a team skip depth 2 and go straight to 3?
It is rarely wise. Depth is earned on evidence, and a period of drafting produces that evidence while teaching the team what routine really looks like.