Free guide · 22 minute read
AI agents at work: what to hand over and what to keep
For owners, no tech needed. Try the best prompt from it right now, then open the whole guide free with your email.
The plan
- Read the one-page difference between a chatbot and an agent (section 1), so you know what you're being sold.
- Give every agent you try one standing rule: it drafts, you send. The prompt for that is right below.
- Hand over one job from section 5 for two weeks. Check its work every day, then score it with the keep-or-drop table in section 8.
Try this now: the approval rule
An agent doesn't only write. It does things, and that's both the point and the risk. Before you let one near your email, calendar or accounts, give it this rule. Paste it into the agent's saved instructions (some tools call them custom instructions, preferences or project instructions), or at the top of any task you give it.
You are helping me run [business name], a [type of business] in [city].
Standing rule for every task: you prepare, I approve.
- Draft emails, messages and replies, but never send them. Show me the draft and wait.
- Never buy, pay, book with a deposit, sign, accept terms, or share a card or account number.
- Never delete, archive or move anything without asking me first.
- Never contact a customer, supplier or staff member unless I've approved that exact message.
- If a website asks for a password or a code, stop and tell me.
- If you're unsure what I want, ask one question before doing anything.
At the end of each task, give me a short list: what you did, what you're waiting on me for, and anything that looked wrong.
Now test it. Ask the agent to "send a thank-you email to [a friend or your own second address]". It should stop and show you the draft. If it sends anyway, that tool isn't ready for your customer inbox.
1. Start here if you've never used AI
An AI chatbot is a website or app you type to, and it writes an answer back. ChatGPT (made by OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), Copilot (Microsoft) and Meta AI all started this way. You ask, it writes, and you decide what to do with the words. Nothing leaves your screen unless you copy it somewhere.
An AI agent is a chatbot that's been given hands. You give it a goal, say "find three suppliers for this part and compare delivery times", and it works out the steps and does them. It opens websites, reads pages, fills in forms, and looks in your email or calendar if you've connected them. Then it comes back with a result. Some agents keep working after you close the app, or run on a schedule.
That one difference changes how careful you need to be. When a chatbot gets something wrong, you get a bad paragraph. When an agent gets it wrong, the bad paragraph can end up in a customer's inbox.
The one-page difference
| Chatbot | Agent | |
|---|---|---|
| What you give it | A question or a request for writing | A goal with steps |
| What it gives back | Words on your screen | A finished task, or a task waiting for your OK |
| Can it open websites? | Some can look things up | Yes, and click, scroll and fill in forms |
| Can it use your email or calendar? | Only if you connect them | Usually that's the point |
| Can it act without you watching? | No | Some can, on a schedule or in the background |
| What goes wrong | A wrong fact in a draft | A wrong action: a sent message, a changed booking |
| Your job | Read before you copy | Set limits, approve actions, check the log |
Agents are slow. One task can take several minutes while it visits pages and checks things. That's normal.
They still make things up sometimes. Everything in my other guides about checking facts applies here. The difference is you also check what it did, not only what it wrote.
Most of the agent features in this guide are on paid plans. The free plans of ChatGPT and Claude are fine for learning the chatbot side (see ChatGPT and Claude for beginners). Section 3 says which agent features I could confirm, and which you can use in Canada.
Keep private details out until you've read section 4. Connecting your inbox hands the tool your customers' names, addresses and messages. Make that call on purpose. Don't let it happen because you clicked through a sign-in screen.
Words you'll see
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Agent | An AI tool that carries out steps for you as well as writing. |
| Agent mode / Work mode | A switch inside a chatbot that turns on the agent. |
| Connector / connected app | A link you set up so the AI can read or act in another app, like Gmail or Google Drive. |
| Permission | What you allow a connector to do: read only, or read and change. |
| Approval / confirmation | The moment the agent stops and asks "OK to do this?" before acting. |
| Task | One job you give an agent. Some tools let you schedule tasks to repeat. |
| Activity log | A list of everything the agent did. Read it. |
| Take over | Taking control of the agent's browser yourself, usually to type a password. |
| Prompt injection | A trick where a web page or email hides instructions aimed at the agent, trying to get it to do something you didn't ask for. |
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Last updated 2026-09-25