Favoriot: AI Agents Not Needed Now

Do Favoriot need to develop an AI Agent feature?

Short answer? No, Favoriot does not need full AI Agent automation right now.

And yes, what you have today is more than enough for the market you are serving.

Let me explain this the way I usually reason with myself.

I asked myself this quietly

“Do customers really want systems that act on their own…

or do they want systems they can trust?”

When I sit with city operators, facility managers, engineers, or even researchers, one thing keeps coming up.

They are not asking for autonomy.

They are asking for clarity.

They want fewer surprises.

They want earlier signals.

They want confidence before taking action.

That matters.

What Favoriot already does well

Right now, Favoriot Intelligence does something very important and very rare.

It learns patterns from real operational data

It surfaces what looks unusual

It feeds those insights into a Rule Engine

And then… it stops

That stopping point is not a weakness.

It is a design choice.

The system says,

“Here is what changed.

Here is why it matters.

You decide what to do next.”

That is precisely where trust is built.

Rule Engine + ML is not a compromise

Some people frame this as:

“Rule Engine now, AI Agents later.”

I don’t see it that way.

I see it as:

ML decides what deserves attention

Rules decide what action is allowed

This separation is powerful.

Why?

Because rules are:

  • Auditable
  • Explainable
  • Governable
  • Aligned with SOPs and regulations

And ML is:

  • Adaptive
  • Pattern-driven
  • Good at spotting drift and anomalies

Together, they form a human-in-the-loop intelligence system, not a black box.

That is exactly what enterprises and public sector teams are comfortable with today.

Do customers actually want AI Agents?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth.

Most organisations say they want AI to “automate everything”.

But when you ask one more question…

“Are you okay if the system shuts down equipment on its own?”

“Are you okay if it triggers evacuation automatically?”

“Are you okay if it changes operating parameters without approval?”

The room goes quiet.

What they really want is:

  • Earlier warnings
  • Better recommendations
  • Fewer false alarms
  • Less manual rule tuning

Favoriot Intelligence already delivers that.

Where AI Agents actually make sense later

I’m not against AI Agents. Not at all.

But their place is conditional, not universal.

AI Agents make sense when:

  • Policies are mature
  • Actions are reversible
  • Risk is low
  • Trust has been earned over time

For example:

  • Automated report generation
  • Recommendation ranking
  • Suggesting rule adjustments
  • Proposing actions for approval

Notice the word: suggesting, not executing.

That is a natural evolution path.

Not a starting point.

Strategically, Favoriot is in the right place.

By keeping:

  • ML for learning and insight
  • Rules for control and action

Favoriot positions itself as:

  • Reliable
  • Safe
  • Deployable today
  • Acceptable to conservative sectors

Smart cities.

Utilities.

Campuses.

Critical infrastructure.

These sectors do not reward “full autonomy” first.

They reward predictability and confidence.

My honest conclusion

If I had to answer this as simply as possible:

Favoriot does not need AI Agents to be valuable.

Favoriot Intelligence with ML-driven rules is already the right solution for today.

AI Agents can come later, carefully, selectively, and with guardrails.

Right now, Favoriot is doing something more important than automation.

It is helping people think earlier, not react later.

And that, in my book, is real intelligence.

Favoriot’s Journey: Lessons from Lord of the Rings

The journey of Favoriot, from its earliest days to where it stands today, mirrors The Lord of the Rings Trilogy in a way that feels less like fantasy and more like lived experience.

Not because of epic battles or dramatic villains, but because both stories are really about endurance, pivots, and choosing to continue when the original plan no longer fits the road ahead.

A Journey That Did Not Start With a Grand Map

When Frodo left the Shire, there was no detailed map to Mount Doom. Gandalf did not hand him a ten-year plan. The mission evolved as dangers revealed themselves.

Favoriot began the same way.

The early vision was simple. Build an IoT platform that works. One that local engineers, researchers, and institutions could rely on. What came next was not a straight line. The platform did not arrive fully formed. It grew through experiments, false starts, and product decisions that looked right at the time but later needed rethinking.

Like Middle-earth, the terrain kept changing.

Products as Paths, Not Destinations

In The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship does not walk a single road. They split. They detour. Some paths fail. Others reveal their purpose much later.

Favoriot’s products followed the same rhythm.

Early versions focused heavily on basic device connectivity and dashboards. That was the Shire phase. Simple. Familiar. Necessary.

As real customers arrived, the needs shifted. Monitoring alone was not enough. Scale introduced complexity. Rules became more complicated to manage. Alerts became noisy. What worked for a pilot did not hold up in production.

That forced pivots.

  • From simple dashboards to structured data models
  • From manual rules to more intelligent behaviour detection
  • From pure IoT to AI-assisted decision support
  • From cloud-only thinking to edge-aware architectures

Each pivot felt like leaving a known path and stepping into uncertainty. Some features were retired quietly. Others were reshaped instead of discarded. Just as characters outgrow their early roles, products evolve because the journey demands it.

The Cost of Carrying Too Much

Frodo’s burden was not the distance. It was the Ring.

For Favoriot, the “Ring” often took the form of technical debt, early assumptions, and customer expectations set too soon. Decisions made for speed later demanded patience to untangle. Features built for one market created friction in another. Supporting early users while reworking the core tested both systems and people.

Letting go was hard.

Just as Frodo struggled to release the Ring, teams struggle to let go of products they worked hard to build. Yet progress required accepting that not everything belongs in the final version.

Splitting the Fellowship to Survive

The Fellowship did not stay together because it looked nice. It split because survival required it.

Favoriot’s journey did the same. Engineering focused on stability, while product teams listened closely to users. Business teams dealt with timing, cash flow, and long sales cycles. Partnerships opened doors while internal teams strengthened the foundation.

At times, it felt fragmented. In reality, it was a focus.

Each group carried a different part of the burden. No single team saw the whole picture at all times. Trust became the glue.

Long Stretches Without Applause

Middle-earth did not pause to celebrate milestones. Neither did the market.

There were long periods where progress was invisible from the outside. No launches. No announcements. Just refactoring, rewriting, rebuilding. Customers rarely see this phase, yet it defines whether a platform survives.

Favoriot lived in this space for years.

Quiet work. Fewer shortcuts. Many trade-offs. The kind of progress that feels slow until one day it becomes evident that the platform is stronger, calmer, and more reliable than before.

When the Mission Changes the People

By the end of the trilogy, Frodo was not chasing adventure. He was carrying wisdom earned through pain and persistence.

Favoriot’s journey shaped its people the same way.

Engineers learned restraint, not just speed. Product teams learned when to say no. Leaders learned that timing matters as much as vision. The company knew that building trust outlasts chasing trends.

The platform today is not just more capable; it is also more capable. It is more deliberate.

Not Glory, But Completion

Destroying the Ring was not a victory parade. It was relief. Completion.

Favoriot’s goal has never been to build everything or to shout the loudest. It has been to finish what was started. A platform that can grow with its users. A system that learns instead of overwhelming. A foundation that can support the next chapter without collapsing under its own weight.

That goal shaped every pivot.

The Quiet Parallel

Frodo was not the strongest.
Favoriot did not have the most significant budget.
Neither took the shortest route.

Yet both stories prove the same point.

Lasting impact rarely comes from perfect plans. It comes from adjusting without losing purpose, letting go without giving up, and continuing to walk when turning back feels easier.

That is the shared truth between Middle-earth and Favoriot’s journey.
A long road.
Many pivots.
One mission that refused to be abandoned.

Favoriot – The Journey of an IoT Startup: A Free eBook for Thoughtful Makers, Thinkers, and Doers by Mazlan Abbas

Today (1 January 2026), I’m thrilled to share something that’s been quietly taking shape over the past year. My latest eBook titled “Favoriot – The Journey of an IoT Startup” is now officially released and available for free download. You can get your copy right here: https://payhip.com/b/GbOyo

Writing this book was not a sprint. It was more like those slow early mornings when you sit with a cup of coffee before the world wakes up and try to make sense of what you’ve learned, what you’ve unlearned, and what still puzzles you.

“What if I just write this down now before I forget how it felt?” I asked myself more times than I can count.

That question became this book.

Why This eBook Exists

I didn’t set out to write an eBook that checks all the “how to succeed” boxes. I wrote something more honest. More personal. More reflective of real work and real life.

This is a piece of writing that came from:

  • Conversations I had with founders and students
  • Moments when I wasn’t sure if something would work
  • Times when a quiet insight changed my view more than any big announcement ever could

Some parts feel calm and clear. Some parts feel messy and uncertain. In all of them, you’ll find reflections that resonate with the kinds of questions we all silently carry with us.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Am I doing this right?” or “What truly matters here?” then this book was written with you in mind.

What You’ll Find Inside

This eBook isn’t a step-by-step guide or a list of formulas that promise success. You won’t find shortcuts here. What you will find are reflections rooted in real experience:

  • How clarity often arrives slowly
  • Why patience matters more than speed
  • What it really takes to think long term
  • Why credibility beats noise
  • How do you navigate uncertainty when the path ahead isn’t clear

These are not theories. They came from living through questions that didn’t have neat answers.

“Oh… so this is what that moment was really teaching me,” I found myself saying as I shaped these chapters.

A Free Book for the Curious Mind

You might wonder why this eBook is free. There are reasons.

Most books you see are behind paywalls. You sign up. You subscribe. You unlock. All of that has its place.

But I wanted this one to be different.

I wanted it to be reachable by anyone who might benefit from it — no barriers. No barriers, no hoops, no strings attached.

Just download it, read it at your pace, and keep what matters to you.

Who Should Read This

This is a book for people who:

  • Are you building something without a clear path
  • I’m thinking about the next step, but don’t know exactly what it is
  • Feel the tension between urgency and patience
  • Need space to reflect instead of being told what to do

If you’re looking for hype or fast answers, this may not be a perfect match.

If you’re looking for thoughtful reflections that support your own thinking, then this book might feel like a companion for that journey.

Grab Your Copy

Here’s the link again:

👉 https://payhip.com/b/GbOyo

Download it, read it, and then take a moment to reflect on one question:

Which part stayed with me the longest after I closed it?

If you feel like sharing what that was, I’d really like to hear it. Drop a comment. Send a message. Pass the link to someone else who might need it.

Because sometimes the meaning of a book only shows up after you’ve walked a few steps beyond the last page.

Thank you for being here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Let’s continue the conversation.

Why Most Advice Sounds Good but Fails on the Ground

Advice is often clean. Reality is not.

Advice does not account for context.
Or timing.
Or people.
Or fatigue.

I have learned to listen for patterns, not prescriptions.

What worked for someone else may collapse under a different set of constraints. And that does not mean anyone is wrong.

The doodle character keeps walking through uneven ground. Same pace. Same posture.

Good judgment is not borrowed.
It is built.