Do You Have AI Agents Working for You?
Remember when we all dreamed about having a personal assistant who could handle our most tedious tasks? That future is rapidly becoming reality—not through human helpers, but AI systems designed to act for you.
What is Agentic AI and Why Should You Care?
AI Agents (sometimes called agentic AI) refers to artificial intelligence systems that can independently perform tasks for you rather than just chatting. Why does this matter? Because your most valuable resource isn’t money—it’s time. Every task an AI can handle autonomously gives you back precious minutes in your day.
Unlike traditional AI that simply answers questions or generates content, agentic AI can interact with software, make decisions within guardrails you set, and complete entire workflows without constant supervision. It’s like having a digital employee rather than just a smart reference tool.
AI Agents in Everyday Life
When you ask a regular AI assistant for dinner recommendations, it gives you ideas. An AI agent could check your calendar for available times, book the reservation, and add it to your schedule—all from a single request.
This works through several key components:
Goal understanding: The AI interprets what you’re trying to accomplish
Planning: It creates a step-by-step approach to reach that goal
Execution: It interfaces with various tools and services to complete tasks
Feedback loops: It learns from successes and failures to improve future performance
Where AI Agents Are Making the Biggest Impact
The most impressive applications of agentic AI are emerging in areas where routine decisions and actions consume significant time:
Customer service: Some systems have gone from chatting about their products and policies to performing actions like issuing refunds and returns.
Personal productivity: Tools like AI scheduling assistants can negotiate meeting times between multiple parties via email, entirely in the background.
Research and information gathering: Instead of providing search results for you to sift through, agentic systems can synthesize findings into actionable reports.
How to Start Benefiting from AI Agents
Begin with small, low-risk implementations:
Try an AI email assistant (Gmail and Outlook both have them) that can draft responses based on your typical communication style
Experiment with calendar management tools that can schedule meetings autonomously
Use file organization assistants that can automatically categorize and rename documents based on their content
Start with simple tasks where mistakes would have minimal consequences while you build trust in the system.
AI Agents Are Still New
There are many niche AI agents that excel at their specific tasks. There is a good directory of them at AIAgentDirectory.com. These agents are not great with complex, general tasks yet. OpenAI and Claude are currently working on agents that can take over your PC and do the tasks you ask of them. We will see how well that works out.
Tech Tip: Start Your AI Agent Journey Safely
For AI Agent tasks that might be more complex, consider fully documenting your process and loading this into the agent as an example of what you expect to happen.
Practical Examples
Autonomous scheduling: Clara or Calendly with AI enhancements
Research automation: Tools like Elicit or Consensus for academic literature review
Process automation: Zapier’s AI actions that can trigger entire workflows based on natural language requests
Customer engagement: Intercom’s AI customer service agents that can resolve common issues without human involvement
