About
Making human authority real in the age of AI agents
RealMandates is the accountability layer for AI agents: governance software that makes sure every consequential action an agent takes is authorized by a human mandate and owned by a named person. We are building it because the companies that get the most from AI will be the ones that stay in charge of it.
Our mission
Make it normal for every AI agent action that matters to have a human owner, so companies can give AI more work with confidence.
What we believe
Signals initiate. Agents execute. Humans govern.
Machines are very good at noticing and doing. People are responsible for deciding what should be done and answering for it.
Why the name RealMandates
Most AI governance is not real yet. It lives in policies and principles, while AI agents act in the real world. A real mandate is authority a person actually grants, for work an agent actually does, with a name actually attached. That is what we build, and that is why it is our name.
Founder
Mark Tack, Founder
- Six-time CMO
- Contributor to Acxiom's $2.3 billion acquisition
- Author of three books on marketing
- Marketing faculty, DePaul University
Mark Tack has led marketing as a CMO six times across enterprise software, AI, and data companies, and has contributed to multiple successful exits, including Acxiom's $2.3 billion acquisition. He is the author of The Marketing Engine (2018), The Growth Engine (2020), and Marketing Rebuilt (2026), and has served as an adjunct marketing instructor at DePaul University, where he developed coursework on marketing plans. He lives in the Chicago area.
Why I am building RealMandates
I have led marketing six times, in enterprise software, AI, and data companies. Every one of those jobs came with a new wave of technology that promised more speed. Most of it made us faster at the same work.
AI agents are different. They do not just help people work. They act. They send the email, move the budget, update the record, and answer the customer, often before anyone looks.
When I wrote Marketing Rebuilt, I set out to show leaders how to put AI to work across every part of marketing. The idea that drew the most attention was not a tactic. It was a rule: humans govern. Readers, clients, and my students at DePaul kept asking the same thing. How do we make sure that rule actually holds, every time, across every agent our teams build?
RealMandates is my answer. I believe AI should do far more of the work than it does today. I also believe every action that matters should have a person's name on it. Those two beliefs are not in tension. The second is what makes the first possible.
Mark Tack
From the book to the company
2018
The Marketing Engine is published.
2020
The Growth Engine is published.
October 2026
Marketing Rebuilt is published, introducing the autonomy threshold and the Governed Action Rate.
2026
RealMandates is founded to make the governance in the book enforceable.