Video · 8 min · Lesson 1 of 7
Assistant or agent
The difference is not intelligence but autonomy and access to tools.
Transcript
An assistant waits for a prompt and returns text, and you stay in the loop for every step. An agent is given a goal and a set of tools, then plans and carries out several steps on its own: it reads a ticket, checks the order system, drafts a reply and updates the record.
Agents earn their keep on high-volume, rule-heavy, multi-step work that used to mean a person clicking between tabs: triaging customer requests, reconciling invoices, assembling recurring reports and enriching leads before a sales call.
Not every problem needs an agent. If the steps are always the same, a fixed automated workflow with one AI step is cheaper, faster and easier to test. Reach for an agent when the path genuinely depends on what it finds along the way.
Key takeaways
- Agents pursue goals with tools; assistants answer prompts.
- Agents fit high-volume, multi-step, rule-heavy work.
- If the steps never change, a fixed workflow is the better choice.