Why it matters
Agents move AI from "helps you do the task" to "does the task": researching a prospect, reconciling records, drafting and filing a report. That's a bigger productivity jump, and a bigger trust decision, because the agent acts on your systems rather than just talking to you.
How it works
The model runs in a loop: assess the goal, choose a tool (search, database, email, calendar), read the result, decide the next step. Guardrails define what it may touch and when it must stop and ask. The craft is in scoping the tools and the checkpoints, not the intelligence.
What to do about it
Give agents jobs with clear success checks and cheap mistakes first: internal research, drafting, data tidy-ups. Keep a human sign-off wherever the action leaves the building.
