AI agent use instances

As a particularly cool particular person, I’ve not too long ago gotten actually into Minecraft, the open-world sandbox recreation that is mainly digital LEGOs. However I’ve discovered that (as with every inventive endeavor) the sheer chance of constructing something your coronary heart needs means it may be difficult to truly provide you with a good suggestion of one thing to create.

AI brokers have an identical downside. The thought of software program that may take a purpose, make choices, and do work in your behalf is genuinely compelling. It guarantees much less busywork and extra time spent on the elements of your job that really require a human. However the place do you really begin?

That leap from obscure potentialities to sensible, day-to-day use is the place most groups get caught. What do AI agent use instances appear like on a Tuesday afternoon when your inbox is full, your CRM is a large number, and also you’re simply attempting to maintain issues transferring?

To assist shut that hole and get you constructing (no diamond pickaxes wanted on this case, sadly), I will stroll you thru a number of examples of how actual groups are utilizing AI brokers at work. These use instances aren’t futuristic hypotheticals or robots doing every part for you, however sensible examples of brokers taking up the type of messy, multi-step work that slows groups down.

Desk of contents:

What are AI brokers?

An AI agent is a system that may take a purpose, determine tips on how to obtain it, then really do the work—typically throughout a number of instruments and choices—with out you needing to micromanage each transfer.

After all, that definition covers plenty of floor. There are various various kinds of AI brokers, from easy rule-based brokers to extra autonomous, multi-step ones that plan, cause, and adapt as they go. If you would like a deeper breakdown, try our full information on the totally different sorts of AI brokers.

However for this text, suffice it to say that I am not speaking about Roombas, self-driving automobiles, or these not-creepy-at-all humanoid robots roaming human areas. I am specializing in the type of AI brokers that reside inside your software program stack and provide help to get precise work completed.

In a office context, an AI agent may:

• Monitor incoming information (like emails, leads, or assist tickets)

• Resolve what issues and what does not

• Take motion throughout instruments (ship messages, replace information, or set off workflows)

• Loop you in solely when human judgment is definitely wanted

When arrange appropriately, you may inform AI brokers what you wish to occur, they usually determine the steps. That is what makes them totally different from conventional automation, which follows a set algorithm it doesn’t matter what.

That shift is why AI brokers are particularly highly effective for work that is messy or continuously altering. And it is also why they’re beginning to present up all over the place from advertising and marketing and gross sales to ops, assist, and engineering.

AI agent use instances by position

As a result of I work at Zapier, the place we’re actively inspired to experiment with AI instruments (and AI brokers are a part of our product), I’ve loads of expertise attempting to suit a robot-shaped answer right into a decidedly human course of—with disappointing however often hilarious outcomes. So I do know that whereas every part appears like a nail while you’re an AI-enthusiast hammer, not every part will be solved with an AI immediate and a superb perspective.

So the actual query is: the place does agentic AI really earn its preserve?

The best approach to reply that’s by in search of work that is painful to handle manually, however brittle with conventional automation. Deal with duties which are ongoing, multi-step, and depending on context or judgment. When you’re in a position to spot the type of downside an AI agent can personal end-to-end, the use instances are inclined to reveal themselves fairly shortly.

Listed below are a number of instance use instances grouped by group, however you may also try our template gallery for extra inspiration throughout much more roles.

AI agent use instances for advertising and marketing

As a substitute of dealing with one process at a time, marketing-focused AI brokers can personal whole workflows: capturing leads, enriching them with context, drafting content material, and routing work to the suitable place for evaluate. Meaning much less busywork and extra leverage.

Slate, a digital publishing platform, needed to extend lead quantity with out spending hours chasing down prospects or manually enriching information. In order that they constructed an AI agent that pulls in leads from a number of sources, enriches them routinely, and routes high-quality prospects straight to gross sales.

In a single month, that agent helped generate greater than 2,000 leads with no further guide elevate. The agent dealt with the repetitive work within the background, whereas the advertising and marketing group targeted on nurturing and conversion.

Be taught extra: How Slate generated 2,000+ leads in a single month with AI-powered brokers

AI brokers are additionally serving to advertising and marketing groups scale content material in ways in which could be almost unimaginable in any other case. At JBGoodwin REALTORS, a single advertising and marketing coordinator was answerable for supporting the web presence of greater than 900 actual property brokers. As a substitute of turning that into an countless recreation of catch-up, the group used an AI agent to handle the content material pipeline.

The agent researches related native information and information, turns these insights into weblog posts and social content material, and distributes drafts to the advertising and marketing group for evaluate. Every agent will get constant, on-brand content material tailor-made to their market with out the central group turning into a bottleneck.

Be taught extra: How JBGoodwin REALTORS scaled operations with automation

AI agent use instances for gross sales

Gross sales groups lose a stunning period of time to work that occurs round promoting: researching accounts, monitoring follow-ups, logging notes, and conserving CRMs updated. That overhead provides up shortly, and it is precisely the place AI brokers could make the most important influence.

NisonCo bumped into this downside whereas attempting to scale lead technology. The group wanted to determine new companies coming into their goal {industry}, however doing it manually meant a rotating crew of part-time researchers scanning press releases, commerce publications, and enterprise directories every single day.

In order that they handed the job to an AI agent. Now, their agent scans Google Information and industry-specific sources day by day, extracts key particulars like firm names, web sites, and management groups, and compiles potential leads right into a shared Google Sheet. From there, one other system kicks off focused outreach routinely.

What used to require three to 5 part-time researchers now runs with a single part-time worker—and it generates extra leads than earlier than.

AI brokers have additionally remodeled how NisonCo handles follow-ups after gross sales calls. Beforehand, monitoring motion objects, proposal requests, and subsequent steps relied on guide notes and reminiscence. Now, an AI agent critiques name transcripts, identifies key commitments, and takes motion routinely. It logs prospect particulars within the CRM, notifies the group in Slack, and drafts personalised follow-up emails that land in Gmail, prepared for evaluate and sending.

Be taught extra: How NisonCo fuels enterprise development with Zapier Brokers

AI agent use instances for buyer success

Churn danger is a problem for any SaaS enterprise. Healthie needed a approach to floor dangers earlier than it was too late, so their group created an Enterprise Well being Insights Weekly agent to do precisely that.

Each Monday, the agent checks programs like Salesforce, HubSpot, Vitally, and Assist Scout for indicators of churn or enlargement. It then posts a abstract in Slack, the place CS and Product leads can instantly evaluate the insights and take motion.

“Finest case: it flags accounts the group already knew about. Worst case: it flags ones they did not—which is definitely one of the best end result,” stated James Kase, Affiliate Director of RevOps at Healthie.

Previously, Healthie hosted month-to-month calls between product and buyer assist groups to evaluate suggestions from buyer quarterly enterprise critiques. However these conversations typically occurred after a buyer had already churned—or in no way.

Now, the group makes use of the QBR Suggestions Insights Aggregator, an agent that pulls information from Vitally and shares weekly summaries in Slack. It surfaces suggestions and traits asynchronously, making it simpler for groups to align and act on insights whereas clients are nonetheless engaged.

“We get all that info beforehand, whereas they’re nonetheless a buyer. It helps us act early and keep away from churn,” stated James.

Finest practices for utilizing AI brokers

Like my well-known bourbon pecan candy potato pie recipe, AI brokers have plenty of potential, however in addition they have plenty of potential to go mistaken. Listed below are the roadblocks groups run into most frequently—and tips on how to assume by means of them like somebody who’s constructed (and debugged) a number of brokers already.

Know what sort of work at hand over to an agent

When you’re looking at a clean web page, do not begin by selecting a software to automate. Begin by in search of a sample in your day-to-day work:

• Duties you do manually, repeatedly

• Work that includes analyzing, summarizing, categorizing, or organizing info

• Processes the place the “inputs” reside throughout a number of locations (e-mail + CRM + Slack + docs)

That is the candy spot for brokers—particularly when the work is mentally draining however does not require deep experience each time. Consider your agent as a thought associate that may prep updates, reframe data, floor insights, and preserve tabs on what’s altering.

AI brokers aren’t proper for each workflow, although. Generally conventional automation suits the invoice higher, particularly while you want precision and predictability. However in the event you’re snug letting the system improvise a bit (drafting copy, summarizing updates, triaging requests), an agent is commonly good.

If errors are expensive (billing adjustments, strict information formatting, compliance-sensitive workflows), you may need the guardrails and determinism of a Zap (our phrase for automated workflows). And even higher, you may go for one of the best of each worlds with a Zap that features an agent step inside it.

Begin with low-stakes workflows

It is regular to really feel overwhelmed and reluctant to leap into the deep finish. I, too, blanch on the considered giving a brand new agent the ability to submit no matter it needs to the corporate Slack’s #normal channel in my title.

That is why the quickest approach to construct confidence is to start out with low-stakes workflows the place the worst-case state of affairs is “meh, that abstract wasn’t good.” Listed below are a number of beginner-friendly beginning factors:

• A doc summarizer that pulls from one trusted supply (like a Google Doc)

• A analysis agent that scans a particular set of webpages or inside notes

• An “inbox triage” agent that drafts responses however does not ship them

When you belief the stream, broaden step-by-step. Add instruments and automations regularly as a substitute of giving the agent entry to every part .

Deploy a number of brokers for advanced workflows

A single agent can typically deal with one job superbly. However the extra sprawling an agent’s job turns into, the extra variability you introduce.

As quickly as your directions get lengthy, advanced, or filled with branching logic, you may normally get higher outcomes by splitting the work up. Multi-agent setups are value it when:

• One set off can result in totally different paths (like routing requests to totally different outcomes)

• You wish to restrict software entry (for instance, just one agent is allowed to delete information)

• You’ve gotten a number of entry factors that each one want the identical “ending step” (like formatting and posting a remaining abstract)

Slim roles scale back the margin for error—and as an added bonus, they make your setup extra modular. Construct as soon as, reuse typically.

Use efficient prompting

In case your agent retains nearly doing what you need, it normally wants clearer directions. Listed below are a number of prompting habits that constantly assist:

• Assume zero context. Outline acronyms, clarify edge instances, and state constraints.

• Specify the output. Make clear size, tone, format, and the place to place the outcome.

• Hold it crisp. Fewer phrases imply fewer ambiguities and fewer transferring elements.

• Give it a task. “Act like a RevOps lead” produces totally different pondering than “analyze this.”

• Construction the request. Format your immediate like position → process → steps → output. For lengthy context, use clear boundaries (like …).

• Rinse and repeat. Deal with the primary run like a draft, then refine with suggestions.

And if you’d like a shortcut, Zapier Copilot (the constructing assistant contained in the agent editor) can assist you configure an agent shortly, troubleshoot when assessments go sideways, and tighten up directions with out you having to start out from scratch.

AI agent use instances, orchestrated

When AI brokers work nicely, they do not really feel flashy. They monitor, summarize, route, and comply with up on work within the background. They catch issues earlier than they slip by means of the cracks, they usually give groups again time and a focus for the elements of labor that want human judgment probably the most.

Zapier is probably the most related AI orchestration platform, which suggests your brokers aren’t caught inside a single software or workflow. You may construct brokers that pull context from throughout your whole tech stack, take motion the place it issues, and work alongside your current automations, not instead of them.

Whether or not you are simply getting began with a single agent or coordinating a number of brokers throughout groups, Zapier provides you the pliability to design programs that match your real-world workflows.

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