In plain English
- What happened
- Several large AI vendors now market a product category called an AI agent, distinct from a regular chatbot. OpenAI's developer documentation and its ChatGPT Agent announcement describe a system that can carry out multi-step tasks on its own, and Anthropic has published its own account of what separates an agent from a fixed, pre-programmed workflow.
- Why it matters to your business
- The word 'agent' is now attached to a wide range of products, from a chatbot with a slightly longer memory to software that can send emails, place orders or edit records without being asked at each step. Whether a tool falls on one end of that range or the other determines how much oversight it needs before it touches customer-facing work or a business account.
- Do this
- Open the settings page for any tool labeled an agent in your business and check whether its actions run automatically or wait for your approval before you connect it to email, payments or customer records.
Over the past year, most major AI companies have started marketing something they call an agent. OpenAI introduced a version of ChatGPT called ChatGPT Agent that can browse the web, run code and work through several steps on its own, and Anthropic has published its own explanation of what separates an agent from a simpler tool.
What actually makes something an agent
OpenAI's developer documentation describes an agent as a system that can independently carry out multi-step tasks using tools, rather than answering a single question and stopping there. A standard chatbot waits for a person to ask each question and does not take action on its own; an agent is built to keep going toward a goal without a person prompting every step.
Anthropic draws a similar line in its own engineering writing. It distinguishes a fixed 'workflow' — a set of steps a person designed in advance — from an agent that decides its own next step based on what it finds as it goes, rather than following a script.
Why the label matters more than the marketing
The distinction is not academic. A chatbot that only answers questions can give you a wrong answer, which is annoying but recoverable. A tool that acts on its own — sending an email, placing an order, updating a customer record — can do something that is harder to undo before anyone has reviewed it. Whether a product marketed as an agent falls into the first category or the second is the thing worth checking, not the word itself.
OpenAI describes ChatGPT Agent as able to browse the web, run code and complete tasks in a virtual browser on a user's behalf, rather than only answering in a chat window.
Reality check
The term agent is being applied loosely across the industry, and two products with the same label can have very different scopes. Some are a chatbot with a plugin bolted on; others can genuinely take actions inside your accounts. Assuming similar capability just because both are called an agent is where this usually goes wrong.
What to check before you turn one loose
- 1
List the actions it can take without asking first
Check the vendor's settings page to see which actions — sending a message, spending money, editing a record — happen automatically versus which ones pause for your approval.
- 2
Find out what accounts it can reach
An agent connected to email, a calendar or a payment account is effectively a new employee with login credentials, and worth the same access review you would give a new hire.
- 3
Decide which actions need a human to sign off
Anything that spends money or goes out to a customer is a reasonable place to keep a person in the loop, at least at first.
- 4
Run it on something with no real stakes first
A week spent on an internal, recoverable task — drafting notes, sorting a backlog — tells you more about how it behaves than reading the product page does.
- 5
Put a date on the calendar to recheck it
Vendors are updating what these tools can do frequently, so what it could do when you signed up may not describe what it can do six months from now.
None of this means an agent-labeled tool is the wrong choice. It means the useful question is not 'is it an agent' but 'what is it actually allowed to do without me in the room,' and that answer is in the settings page, not the announcement.
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