AI agents have quickly become one of the hottest topics in artificial intelligence, promising to transform the way creative professionals and marketers work. You’ve probably encountered headlines touting tools like ChatGPT Deep Research, OpenAI’s Operator, Google’s Agentspace, or Anthropic’s Claude with its “Computer Use” feature. These technologies claim to autonomously perform complex tasks—from in-depth market research and competitive analysis to automating daily workflows and even controlling your computer interface.
In this article, I’ll explain what AI agents are, explore the hype versus reality, look at concrete use cases relevant to marketers and creative professionals, and provide my personal perspective on this quickly developing field.
What are AI agents?
Good question! It is one the tech industry itself is struggling to answer.
Here is my take: AI agents are artificial intelligence systems designed to independently carry out tasks and make decisions towards achieving specific goals. Unlike traditional AI tools—which typically rely on clear instructions (prompts) and human oversight—AI agents are supposed to operate with a level of autonomy that allows them to adapt to new information, self-direct their actions, and handle more complex tasks without continuous guidance.
Examples such as OpenAI’s Operator, which autonomously navigates websites and performs tasks like booking reservations or making purchases, highlight this capability. Similarly, ChatGPT Deep Research offers marketers autonomous multi-step analysis and in-depth research, drastically reducing the time spent on manual data gathering. Adobe just introduced agents for marketing automation.
At the same time, it’s important to distinguish genuine AI agents from simpler automation tools. True AI agents can manage uncertainty and adaptively make decisions when facing unforeseen challenges or incomplete information, while traditional automation follows predefined instructions without deviation.
The main problem while researching and discussing AI agents is how vendors use this term very loosely. More often than not the fancy new term is slapped onto old products. This is something to be aware of.
Why are AI agents suddenly so hyped?
The recent surge of interest in AI agents comes from several interesting new tools and lots of venture capital. Leading companies such as OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and a many startups have advanced the capabilities and accessibility of such AI tools, fanning excitement about their potential impact.
One factor driving this hype is the release of frameworks and tools that enable easier development and deployment of autonomous AI. OpenAI’s introduction of the Responses API and the open-source Agents SDK is one example. Google’s launch of Gemini 2.0, with its multimodal capabilities and autonomous agent features, is another one. Google’s Agentspace platform also aims to simplify enterprise adoption of AI agents, integrating into existing software tools used by marketers and creatives. In another example, Anthropic’s Claude and its “Computer Use” mode have increased interest by enabling AI models to directly control desktop applications, albeit with ongoing caution around reliability and safety.
You can find many more tools and news by looking at the tag “agents” on this website.
Agents are often seen as the “next big thing” in AI, because if they work, they can open up fascinating new possibilities. They would potentially go beyond being just a tool and could become a new, artificial kind of worker. Some vendors already tout them as the employees of the future. But that’s hyperbole, at least for now.
How AI agents can impact marketing and creative workflows
Let’s assume for a moment, this new class of AI lives up to its hype. What would that mean for people working in marketing?
In a nutshell: AI agents could reshape the workflows of marketers and creatives by automating repetitive tasks, enhancing research capabilities, and enabling more effective strategic decision-making.
Tools like ChatGPT Deep Research for example allow marketing professionals to quickly gather extensive data, perform competitive analysis, and uncover detailed market insights. These AI-driven research assistants can autonomously synthesize complex information into structured, actionable reports, significantly speeding up processes that previously took hours or even days. There are similar services offered by Google, Perplexity, as well as the Open Source AI platform Hugging Face.
In sales and outreach, platforms like Origami Agents use AI for lead generation by analyzing digital footprints such as social media presence and job listings. This helps marketing and sales teams identify high-potential leads more efficiently, hopefully improving conversion rates.
Content creators and strategists can also benefit from AI agents capable of analyzing trends and audience behaviors in real-time. These insights enable marketers to create more personalized and relevant campaigns, potentially leading to more audience engagement and improved return on investment.
Finally, tools such as OpenAI’s Operator can help to automate daily digital tasks like scheduling social media posts, managing email campaigns, or updating CRM databases, allowing creatives and marketers to focus more on high-level strategy and innovation.
The hopes and visions for the future are much more exciting of course: Just imagine an autonomous AI always keeping an eye on your competition. Or an AI continuously looking for new topics to write about for you, maybe delivering keyword research and outlines as well.
The skeptic’s view: Are AI agents really that smart?
While AI agents bring exciting potential, they’re certainly not without flaws or limitations. Real-world performance of currently available offerings can definitely fall short of the hype. Despite impressive demonstrations, some AI agents, such as Manus, have struggled with accuracy, reliability, and even basic task execution in practical tests. Services like Perplexity have been caught delivering impressive looking, albeit made-up research results.
Security experts also warn of risks. Autonomous AI agents require access to sensitive data to function effectively, creating vulnerabilities to cyberattacks, data leaks, or privacy breaches. Concerns have been raised by industry leaders, like Signal’s Meredith Whittaker, about the extensive permissions these agents require, potentially threatening users’ privacy and security.
My take on the AI agent hype
I’m certainly a fan of tools like ChatGPT Deep Research. This is why I’ve already written an extensive article about its use in marketing. I can see many other use cases for similar tools that take over mundane and time consuming tasks. But I also acknowledge how the expectations and the hype are often way ahead of reality–especially if there’s lots of venture capital involved. That seems to be the case with regard to agents right now.
In other words: They can be very useful. But some of the promises by their vendors are overblown today.
Nobody has to change how they do their creative work because of AI agents today. At the same time, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on these developments. Because if these tools one day work as advertised, they do have the potential to be a major disruptor.
OpenAI certainly thinks so. They’re already publicly speculating about research agents that would cost an eye-watering $20,000 a month …