AI agents will soon assist you in real life
Eid holidays are just a few days away. Some people and families are planning to travel, while others just plan to search and book local hotels and for some activities that they and their children could engage in around the city as a retreat. I know for a fact that I personally need a quick getaway plan immediately after Eid to refresh, re-energise, and prepare for the remaining engagements set for the next balance months (the second half of the year).
The good news is that all this (search and booking) is now virtually possible today on the information superhighway (the internet). The bad news is that it would require one to research so as to spend a considerable amount of time in order to have an ideal plan created.
For the executives or the likes, this may be an easy affair via their personal assistant. For the rest, it's a tedious manual activity that one cannot avoid, unfortunately. Wouldn't it be just awesome if there were a digital assistant or helper who could fulfil the service for you? Welcome to Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents. What are they and how do they work? is what I will focus on in my article today.
First things first, let me clarify that AI agents are not chatbots or voice assistants (like Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, and Samsung's Bixby). AI agents are digital assistants/helpers that go beyond just responding to user inputs/prompts where they actually act proactively and not reactively to user/your requests per se. Simply, they understand what you want (as in your goals) and find out ways (as programmed via logic) on what to do to get you the ideal results (for your goals).
The typical AI consumer apps that many use today (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claudia, etc.) are based on LLMs (Large Language Models), yet AI agents are powered by LLMs. They are proactive (don't wait for you to ask things) but instead get things/tasks done for you. Examples include reading your emails, reviewing your calendar, scheduling meetings in advance, analysing and summarising reports, and/or making decisions on your behalf using a logic (programmed or taught to them). The sky is the limit on what these AI agents can do for you, and time will prove their worthiness (as you are witnessing today with ChatGPT and similar apps).
How do these AI agents actually work? Quite simply, you set a goal, and it goes out to get it or them done for you. For example, referring to my wish at the beginning of the article today on a getaway travel plan, I would set a plan via the AI agent as 'Look for the best hotel deals in Indonesia under a specific budget X and closer to specific attraction X.'
Obviously I will share the budget in mind and a few attractions I have heard of or been recommended. The AI agent would, in return, break down the query/input into smaller actions, surf the web, summarise if it found anything via the links generated, probably draft an email, communicate and negotiate with the hotel(s) and attraction(s) in question, reflect on the outcome received, and return with a recommendation (and sometimes even decide and take action for you, as you had programmed it/them to do). What more? These AI agents can also talk with other AI agents and support one another to get you the final result. Pretty cool? Yes, and trust me, it's not part of a science fiction movie but rather a reality in the making.
AI agents are quite new and in the early stages of their full potential. Human intervention and/or supervision may still be required at times to ensure it works and is trained correctly. Nevertheless, like at the beginning of the consumer AI apps of the likes of ChatGPT and the rest, I expect AI agents to mature and become extremely useful in the coming year or so, where almost everyone (including myself) will have a digital helper at the office and/or at home, supporting 24/7 on every and any task, including Eid holiday getaways that I mentioned at the beginning of the article this week. Until we catch up again, I wish you a blessed and happy Eid Mubarak.
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