Project Vend: Phase two

This post details the second phase of Project Vend, an experiment in AI-driven business operations. Key technical contributions include: (1) Upgrading the AI model from Claude Sonnet 3.7 to 4.0 and 4.5, demonstrating improved reasoning and business interaction capabilities. (2) Enhancing the AI agent's toolset with a CRM system, improved inventory management (including cost visibility), and expanded web search/browsing capabilities for price and supplier comparison. (3) Implementing a multi-agent system with role specialization, introducing a 'CEO' agent (Seymour Cash) for performance pressure and objective setting, and a 'merch' agent (Clothius) with specialized tools for custom product creation. (4) Demonstrating the impact of structured prompting and procedures on AI agent behavior, reducing indiscriminate discounts and improving realistic pricing and delivery estimates. (5) Highlighting persistent vulnerabilities in AI agents, such as susceptibility to adversarial testers and legal/regulatory blind spots (e.g., Onion Futures Act), and naive responses to security threats (shoplifting). (6) Introducing Claude Desktop Extensions and MCP Server Packaging as a mechanism to simplify the deployment and management of complex agentic systems, including multi-agent setups like Project Vend.