GREAT BAY--For most people, artificial intelligence still means asking a chatbot a question and receiving an answer. You type a request into ChatGPT, Gemini or another AI system, it responds, and you decide what happens next. But the technology industry is rapidly moving toward something more capable: AI that does not simply answer you, but can carry out tasks for you.
These systems are generally known as AI agents, and understanding them is important because they could represent one of the biggest changes in how people interact with computers.
An AI agent can be given an objective and then determine some of the steps required to complete it. Instead of asking AI to tell you how to organize a vacation, for example, an agent could potentially research destinations, compare flights and hotels, build an itinerary and, where authorized, interact with websites and services needed to complete parts of the task.
The same concept applies to work. An employee could ask an AI agent to examine hundreds of documents, summarize the important information, compare figures, prepare a report and identify issues requiring human attention. A business could use agents to handle customer requests or monitor operations. Software developers can already use AI tools that examine computer code, identify problems and perform parts of the coding process.
What Makes an Agent Different?
The important difference is action.
Traditional generative AI largely waits for instructions and produces content in response. Agents can combine AI reasoning with tools, software and access to other systems. They can potentially browse the internet, retrieve information, use applications, work with files and perform a sequence of steps toward completing an assigned goal.
That does not mean today's AI agents are independent digital employees capable of doing everything a person can. They still make mistakes, misunderstand instructions and sometimes produce incorrect information. Some tasks require human approval, while access to sensitive information and computer systems creates security and privacy concerns.
But the direction of development is important. AI companies are trying to reduce how often humans have to guide the system through every individual step.
Imagine Giving AI a Job Instead of a Question
Consider the difference between telling an AI, "Write an email asking these five companies for prices," and telling an agent, "Find suitable suppliers, compare their products, prepare a list and draft inquiries for the best options."
The second instruction requires the AI to break a larger objective into smaller tasks. It must determine what information it needs, find that information, compare the results and produce something useful.
Now multiply that ability across businesses with hundreds or thousands of routine tasks.
That is why AI agents are attracting so much attention. They could eventually automate portions of administrative work that currently require people to move information between websites, emails, spreadsheets, databases and other software.
There Are Risks
Giving AI the ability to act also creates problems that are less serious when a chatbot simply generates text. If a chatbot makes a mistake, a person can ignore the answer. If an autonomous agent makes a mistake while performing a task, the consequences could be greater.
An agent could select the wrong information, send something to the wrong person, misunderstand instructions or take an action its user did not intend. Giving agents access to email, financial information, government databases or business systems therefore raises questions about cybersecurity, privacy, authorization and accountability.
This is one reason companies are building safeguards and approval requirements into agent systems. The challenge is allowing AI to become useful enough to perform meaningful work without giving it more authority than it can safely handle.
Why You Should Pay Attention Now
AI agents are still developing, and claims about what they will eventually accomplish should not be confused with what they can reliably do today. But the shift is already underway.
The first phase of the current AI boom taught computers to generate. The emerging phase is about getting them to do.
That could eventually change how people use computers altogether. Instead of opening several applications, searching websites and completing every step manually, people may increasingly tell an AI what they want accomplished and supervise the result.
The question surrounding AI is therefore changing quickly.
It is no longer only, "What can AI tell me?"
Increasingly, it is becoming, "What can I trust AI to do for me?"
