What are AI Agents

The most commonly accepted definition of an “AI Agent” is an autonomous system that can conduct activities such as browsing the web, making appointments, filling out forms, and so on, without the need for a human involved. 

But just like “AI” has no longer come to mean “true” artificial intelligence, the words “AI Agent” is no longer is used just for this specific case. Instead, think of AI Agents as little helper applications that exist to help people with specific tasks (who most likely need to be there monitoring and helping their Agent along the way). 

OpenAI recently released an Agent called Operator, designed browse the web on your behalf and carry out tasks you need done online. 

In their current model, the Agent carries out its work alone, but pauses for human interaction when something like a password is needed, or credit card purchase is needed. This is not, to be clear, because it couldn’t do such things, but rather to help avoid abuse, fraud and all kinds of other imaginable malfeasance possible in this scenario (e.g. – you didn’t want to buy $100,000 worth of shoes, but the bot just did it). 

Early reports are that Operator isn’t quite there yet. It can do tasks in the browser like track prices of something you’re looking to buy or look up flight prices, but the amount of human guidance and technical proficiency needed is enough to make most testers question the value of using the Agent (versus doing the work yourself). 

That doesn't mean Agents can’t or won’t get better, however. It’s all evolving rapidly and a space worth watching over the next two years. Google has their own browser-using agent, Project Mariner, coming out soon as well.

One of the Agents more relevant to the clients we serve is the new “Drupal AI” agent that was recently released as an optional add-on to the new DrupalCMS. If you haven’t seen Drupal AI in action, there’s a nice short video (below) demonstrating its capabilities that Drupal-founder Dries Buytaert previewed at a recent conference. 

Once installed and configured, Drupal AI appears in a “chatbot-like” format along the lower right corner of the screen when logged in as a site editor. Its current super power is being able to translate conversational requests into action. 

For example, an editor could ask the AI to generate a new content type called News, or add terms to a Taxonomy, or any number of configuration updates to your Drupal site. It’s pretty impressive, even in this limited state, as to what it can do. As someone well versed in best practices, I do cringe a bit at the idea of a non-technical editor making changes to configuration on a live website – not because we’re elitist, but because such changes can be easily lost if other people are pushing their own changes to the live site. You could really screw up your site too if you edited or removed something you’re not supposed to touch!

All that said, we think this is exciting progress! Users who are new to Drupal (and not developers) should be able to play around and see what they can do, and this tool can really help.

Anyone can quickly spin up a free “DrupalCMS” account online to try it out themselves, but it does require a few extra steps to get (like cutting and pasting a unique “API key” from your OpenAI or Anthropic account into your Drupal settings). Otherwise, just watch the video and you’ll get a sense of what it can do.

There are a handful of tools out there today that could be called “Agents,” like customer service agents (Intercom) for companies, or note-taking assistants for client meetings (ZoomAI Companion).

But most of the AI Agent world is still in the “coming soon” phase. The buzz is out there, however, that 2025 will see a number of new tools and agents have their first release.

Any agents you are using today, or excited to try? Let me know!