An AI assistant responds to a person's request, such as answering a question or drafting a document, and the person decides what happens next. An AI agent is given a goal and decides which steps to take to reach it, such as looking up information, calling other systems and producing an output, with limited human input along the way.
AI assistants
- Respond to a request from a person
- Typical uses: answering questions from company knowledge, drafting emails, summarising documents
- Lower risk, because a person reviews every output
AI agents
- Work toward a goal across several steps
- Can use tools: search, databases, APIs and other software
- Typical uses: researching and preparing a customer reply, processing a request end to end, monitoring and responding to defined events
Which should a business use?
Most businesses should start with assistants and narrowly scoped agents. Assistants deliver value quickly with little risk. Agents are useful for well-defined, repeatable processes where every step and permission can be specified.
Using AI agents safely
- Give the agent one clear goal and a limited set of tools.
- Grant only the system access the task requires.
- Require human approval for actions with financial, legal or customer impact.
- Log every step so decisions can be reviewed.
- Test on real scenarios, including unusual ones, before going live.
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