Agents vs chatbots
A chatbot answers questions. An agent does things. Where a chatbot might tell you the status of an order, an agent can look up the order, check the warehouse system, update the shipping provider, and email the customer — all from a single instruction.
Agents combine language models with tool access — the ability to call APIs, query databases, send messages, and trigger workflows. The model decides which tools to use and in what order based on the task at hand.
Practical agent use cases
Customer ops: An agent that monitors your inbox, categorises enquiries, drafts responses, and routes urgent issues to the right team member.
Data processing: An agent that ingests invoices, extracts line items, reconciles against purchase orders, and flags discrepancies for review.
Research: An agent that gathers competitor pricing, summarises industry reports, and compiles a weekly briefing for your team.
Building agents safely
Autonomous systems need guardrails. We build agents with clear permission boundaries (what they can and cannot do), human-in-the-loop checkpoints for high-stakes decisions, and comprehensive logging so you can audit every action taken.