What is an AI agent?
The word "agent" gets used a lot in AI marketing, often loosely. Here's a plain-English way to think about it.
Chatbot.
A chatbot answers questions within a narrow script. Many website chat widgets are chatbots. They're useful for simple FAQs but can't do much beyond that.
AI assistant.
An AI assistant, like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini, can understand almost any request, write, analyse and reason. But it mostly waits for you. You ask, it answers, you ask again.
AI agent.
An AI agent is given a goal rather than a single question. It plans the steps, uses tools such as your email, calendar, CRM or web browser, checks its own progress and keeps going until the task is done or it needs your input.
A simple example.
Ask an assistant: "Draft a follow-up email to Sarah." It writes one email.
Give an agent the goal: "Follow up everyone who enquired last week and hasn't heard back." It checks your inbox, finds the right people, reviews each conversation, drafts personalised emails and presents them for your approval.
What makes agents different.
Tools
They can use software, not just write text
Steps
They work through multi-step tasks
Autonomy
They decide the next step themselves, within limits you set
The catch.
More autonomy means more risk. An agent that can send emails can send the wrong email. Good agents are set up with tight permissions, clear instructions and human approval for important actions.
Is your business ready?
Most businesses get the best results by getting comfortable with AI assistants first, then moving to agents for specific tasks. We help Wellington businesses take that step safely.