Your next customer is a bot · Pre-webinar brief
The Service Handshake: who may agree to what?
When customers and companies are both represented by AI agents, goals, boundaries, permissions and authority need to be explicit before a refund, cancellation or settlement goes ahead.
By Martin Hill-Wilson · November 2026 · 8 pages
What's inside
What it is and where it fits
The four service modes, and how it works alongside protocols such as Poppy.
The six declarations
Goals, options and constraints, data permissions, fallback rules, cost parameters and authority.
Authority and entitlement
May the agent accept it? Is the customer owed it? Two separate questions.
A recovery request, step by step
Allow, deny, hold and escalate, using a missing-delivery example.
What changes in operations
Participation and Verified authority, handover and what the organisation still needs to supply.
What leaders can do first
A five-step pilot and the measures to track.
Permission to buy does not necessarily authorise an agent to cancel an essential service or accept a settlement that waives other remedies.
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Go further
- Download the brief, PDF
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- The Service Handshake: the standard, journey and FAQ
- Your next customer is a bot: the LinkedIn Live series
- Is your service ready? Take the diagnostic
This briefing summarises and interprets The Service Handshake, SH-1.2, and its Technical Specification by Maria McCann, Neos Wave Ltd. It is not the official standard or a conformance assessment.