The verified answer is B. Reduction of the cost for each decision. The question asks for the immediate value of deploying AI agents to automate manual decision-making. AWS Prescriptive Guidance for operationalizing agentic AI identifies immediate ROI metrics such as cost per decision, time compression, and error reduction. Cost per decision compares the cost of agent processing against the human equivalent. That directly maps to the scenario because the company replaced or augmented manual decision-making processes with AI agents.
The immediate value of automation is usually measured by direct operational efficiency: lower cost, faster cycle time, fewer manual steps, and reduced human effort. AWS guidance also recommends anchoring technical and business KPIs to strategic value, including decision latency, resolution accuracy, and cost savings. This supports using cost per decision as a practical business metric for agent deployments.
Option A is incorrect because network effect is a long-term platform or ecosystem metric. It measures the increasing value of a product as more users or participants join, not the immediate value of automating decisions. Option C is incorrect because additional revenue from market expansion is a strategic growth outcome, not an immediate operational value metric. Option D is also incorrect because additional vertical solutions represent future expansion potential, not the direct value of the current deployment.
Because the deployment automates manual decisions, the most direct and immediate metric is the reduction in cost for each decision. Therefore, option B is correct.
