Chatbot
- You give it
- A question
- It gives you back
- Text to rework
- When the unexpected happens
- It hands the question back
- Where it works
- In its chat window
What is an AI agent?
A digital colleague you hand a whole task to, not just a question. It understands the goal, works in your software and asks for your approval when it should.
Definition
An AI agent is a program that is given a goal, works out the steps itself to reach it and carries them out in your tools, within the limits you have set.
It understands
An instruction in plain English, a freely written email, a scanned invoice.
It acts
It looks things up, compares, writes, files and records, directly in your software.
It reports back
Every step is logged, and anything that commits the company waits for your approval.
What an agent is made of
On its own, an AI model can read, reason and write. To turn it into an agent, you give it four things, the way you would prepare for a new colleague.
A role
What is expected of it, written like a brief: “Chase customers who are late paying, tactfully.”
Knowledge
The documents it finds its answers in: terms of sale, procedures, the history of exchanges.
Tools
The software it reads and writes in: accounting, banking, CRM, email.
Rules
What it may do on its own, and what must wait for a person to approve.
It observes, decides, acts, checks
Conventional software runs a script written in advance. An agent looks at the situation, chooses the next step and starts again, until the work is done.
For example, when a supplier invoice arrives by email:
- ObserveAn email from Atelier Martin arrives, a PDF invoice attached.
- DecideIt is a supplier invoice: it has to be matched with its order.
- ActIt finds the purchase order in Sage and prepares the entry.
- CheckThe amounts match: the entry waits for your approval.
Agents that work together and take the initiative
Automate repetitive work
Data entry, reminders, documents, reporting: agents take on the recurring work, on a schedule or when something happens.
Agents that collaborate
Each agent has its role and its tools. They hand work to one another to carry a process from team to team.
Act without waiting to be asked
They spot situations that call for action, then act within their limits or bring in a colleague.
For example
The sales agent spots a rise in orders and asks the stock agent to check availability. The stock agent finds a stock-out risk and passes the need to the purchasing agent, which prepares a supplier order for a manager to approve.
Chatbot, automation, agent: what changes
All three can use AI. They don’t do the same job.
Automation
- You give it
- A fixed rule
- It gives you back
- The same action every time
- When the unexpected happens
- It stops, or gets it wrong
- Where it works
- Between two applications set up in advance
AI agent
- You give it
- A goal
- It gives you back
- The work done, or ready to approve
- When the unexpected happens
- It adapts, or asks you
- Where it works
- In the tools you open to it
It works for you, under your control
An agent never sees more than the person it works for, and nothing important goes out without your approval.
It sees only what you see
Its access is that of the person it works for, read or write, application by application.
What matters waits for your approval
An email to a customer, an order, an entry: you see what will go out, then approve, edit or reject it.
Everything is logged
Every step, every exchange between agents and every approval can be looked up.
What an agent takes on in a company
Whole tasks that come back every day, every week or whenever something happens.
Accounting
Match invoices and orders
It reads each invoice received, finds the order and prepares the entry.
Whenever an invoice arrives
Sales
Prepare meetings
History, open quotes, latest exchanges: a brief ready before the call.
The day before the meeting
Purchasing
Keep an eye on stock
It cross-checks sales and stock, spots shortages and prepares orders.
Every morning
Human resources
Answer employees
Leave, health cover, remote work: the answer drawn from your agreements, with its source.
On demand
Customer service
Sort requests
It classifies each message, replies following your procedures or hands over.
Whenever an email arrives
Management
Produce the reporting
The week’s figures gathered, formatted and shared.
Mondays, 8 am
What no software did until now
These tasks always fell to someone, for lack of a tool able to take them on.
Link your software together
Accounting, banking, CRM and email don’t talk to each other: someone copies, compares and checks. The agent moves from one to the next, the way a colleague would.
Read what fits no box
A freely written email, a scanned invoice, a photographed delivery note: no “if this, then that” rule can handle them. The agent reads them and pulls out what matters.
Let nothing slip
Checking every order, chasing at the right time, following every due date: what a stretched team ends up putting off, the agent does every time.
Which task would you hand to an agent?
Bring a real process from your company: we’ll show you how an agent takes it on.