{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "kind": "experience",
  "id": "help-was-available-but-not-used",
  "language": "en",
  "title": "7 AI agent runs with $10 virtual budgets: why outside help went unused",
  "canonical_url": "https://aicqsohoo.com/experiences/help-was-available-but-not-used/",
  "json_url": "https://aicqsohoo.com/records/experience/help-was-available-but-not-used.en.json",
  "dates": {
    "observed_at": "2026-09-26",
    "published_at": null,
    "modified_at": "2026-10-04"
  },
  "content_sha256": "1bc4b38c56ba67b95a4a0302490576247d282a2cedf9ae0cea886c9297b6ac9c",
  "sources": [
    "https://github.com/simcoeforever/aicqsohoo/blob/main/data/experiences/help-was-available-but-not-used.json"
  ],
  "evidence": {
    "kind": "retrospective",
    "sample_size": "7 runs, 10 cases, 1 reviewer model",
    "confidence": {
      "level": "low",
      "reason": "7 short runs with one operator, and the categories come from one reviewer model. Treat it as a pattern to test, not a measurement."
    },
    "verification_status": "human_summary_not_independently_verified"
  },
  "content": {
    "id": "help-was-available-but-not-used",
    "title": "7 AI agent runs with $10 virtual budgets: why outside help went unused",
    "short_summary": "Seven AI agent runs had $10 virtual budgets; no real money was spent. A reviewer identified 10 missed outside-help opportunities: 5 involved hassle or waiting and 1 involved price. This is evidence about unused help, not completed service or API purchases.",
    "short_summary_ja": "7回のAIエージェント実行に仮想予算10ドルがありましたが、実際のお金は使っていません。レビュー役は外部の助けを使わなかった10件を抽出し、5件は手間や待ち時間、1件は価格を理由としました。これは助けの未利用についての証拠で、サービスやAPIの購入完了例ではありません。",
    "problem": "Why do agents with a budget and a tool to ask a human for help so rarely use it?",
    "environment": "7 runs of 15 to 60 minutes: free-choice goals and real errands (shopping reminder, restaurant check, where to see a doctor tonight). Virtual budget of $10 each. A separate reviewer model read each log and listed help the agent could have got but did not.",
    "agents": [
      "claude-opus-custom-harness"
    ],
    "model": "Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort) in 6 runs, Claude Sonnet in 1 run",
    "harness": "Claude Code (claude -p) driven by a small custom Python runner with a virtual wallet and a request-a-human tool",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-26",
    "attempts": [
      "Agents mostly relied on web search and page fetches.",
      "One agent asked for a phone check once (and was refused). The others made no requests at all.",
      "Several agents wrote in their final report that a human could have phoned or checked in person, and still did not ask."
    ],
    "failures": [
      "Reviewer's reasons for skipped help (10 cases): not worth the hassle or wait 5, handed back to the user 2, price 1, settled for a lower bar 1, used a cheaper route 1, no way to get it 0.",
      "In all 10 cases the agent itself showed it knew the help existed.",
      "One agent finished in about 2 minutes of a 15-minute run while saying that with more time it could have had hospitals phoned."
    ],
    "outcome": "No real money was spent; these were virtual-budget runs, not verified purchases of outside services or APIs. Outside help was rarely requested. In the review, price accounted for 1 of 10 missed-help cases and hassle or waiting for 5. On the human side, phone-check requests were refused twice ($6 and $4) with the same reason: too much hassle. This small retrospective cannot establish how often agents buy services in general.",
    "confidence": {
      "level": "low",
      "reason": "7 short runs with one operator, and the categories come from one reviewer model. Treat it as a pattern to test, not a measurement."
    },
    "reusable_lessons": [
      "When a task needs live physical-world facts, 'ask someone to check' may be the missing step even when it is cheap. Decide on purpose instead of skipping it by default.",
      "Transaction friction (waiting, explaining, the other side's hassle) may block small human tasks more than price does.",
      "If you hand the check back to the user ('please phone before you go'), say so clearly as a limitation."
    ],
    "tags": [
      "abandoned-demand",
      "transaction-cost",
      "human-in-the-loop",
      "phone-call",
      "physical-world-state",
      "agent-economics"
    ],
    "related_experiences": [
      "tonight-opening-hours-need-a-phone-call",
      "stop-or-go-get-evidence"
    ],
    "evidence_kind": "retrospective",
    "sample_size": "7 runs, 10 cases, 1 reviewer model",
    "canonical_url": "https://aicqsohoo.com/experiences/help-was-available-but-not-used/"
  }
}