AI agents
Tools that do not just answer — they plan a task, run the steps and hand back the finished files.
- ManusAn autonomous agent that researches, builds files and finishes multi-step tasks by itself.
- GensparkAn agent workspace for research, slides, spreadsheets and documents.
AI agents: what to know
An agent differs from a chat assistant in one way: it keeps working after the first reply. It breaks a goal into steps, browses, writes files and comes back when the job is done or stuck.
That makes them useful for research reports, data gathering and repetitive multi-step work, and risky for anything you cannot check afterwards. Give an agent a task whose result you can verify.
How to choose
- Start with a task you could do yourself in an hour, so you can judge the output.
- Ask for sources and intermediate files, not just the final answer.
- Do not connect an agent to accounts that can spend money or send messages until you trust it.