The Kitchen Agent At 11pm
Imagine a hotel kitchen running low on flour.
The old workflow is human: someone notices, writes it down, checks a supplier, places an order, keeps the receipt, and fixes mistakes later.
The agent workflow is different. The inventory system sees the stock level, checks tomorrow's bookings, compares supplier rules, and decides whether a reorder is authorised.
The hard part is not the click. The hard part is trust.
What The Agent Needs
The agent needs to know:
- which supplier is approved
- which items can be bought
- what the spend limit is
- whether substitution is allowed
- what proof must be returned
- when a human must approve the order
What The Business Needs
The business needs the agent to leave a trail:
- the mandate that allowed the spend
- the policy rule that passed
- the supplier selected
- the price accepted
- the receipt returned
- the fallback path if something goes wrong
Why Attest Starts With Digital Services
Attest is not shipping hotel procurement today. The first wedge is simpler: agent commerce readiness for APIs, MCP servers, data products, SaaS actions, and digital services.
But the pattern is the same. Before agents can safely spend at scale, every transaction needs a proof layer.