Do You Need an Agent or Just an Assistant?

This morning, as I was sipping my coffee and scanning through emails, it struck me how often I reach for an AI agent to help out. But not every task needs an agent. Sometimes an assistant is all you need. The difference between them can feel subtle until you really understand when each tool shines. Today, I want to share a clear way to decide if your next project calls for an assistant or an agent.

Let's start with drafting emails. You have a situation in mind and need a draft to send out. You input the details into the AI system, like who the email is for, what it's about, and any specific tone you want, and get back a rough copy. From there, you tweak it until it fits perfectly. This is an assistant task because each prompt gets one response, and your job is to refine that response.

Now think about managing customer emails in bulk. Imagine needing to reply to twenty emails before lunchtime. If you go through each email yourself, read them carefully, craft a personal response for each, and send them off, that's still an assistant task. But if you want the AI to handle the entire process from start to finish, reading every email, figuring out the best response based on its content, drafting it, and then queuing those drafts for your review, that's when an agent comes into play.

The key distinction is in the autonomy of the AI. An assistant waits for you to guide it at each step, whereas an agent works through a task independently, making decisions along the way without needing constant confirmation from you. This independence can be incredibly powerful but also risky if not managed properly.

Booking a flight online is another good example of when an agent might be more suitable than an assistant. The AI needs to search through various options, compare prices and dates, and potentially ask for your input before finalizing the booking. In this case, the agent's ability to handle multiple steps without breaking down makes it ideal.

On the other hand, summarizing a meeting is simpler. You describe what happened in the meeting, and the AI provides a concise summary. Here, an assistant works just fine because there isn't much room for error or misinterpretation once you've provided all necessary context upfront.

The main concern with agents is their hidden cost. They consume more computing resources due to the continuous loop of decision-making and action-taking. Additionally, if an agent makes a mistake, it could lead to significant issues like sending emails to wrong recipients without your oversight. This risk needs careful consideration before deciding to use one.

So how do you decide? Start by defaulting to an assistant unless there's a clear reason why an agent would be better. For instance, my most useful agents are the email draft agent and the daily summariser. The email draft agent reads new emails, drafts responses for each one, and queues them up so I can review and send them later. Similarly, the daily summariser compiles a summary of all activities and data from the day, helping me make informed decisions with my morning coffee.

Both these agents are designed to be bounded, meaning they have clear tasks and stopping conditions, and produce drafts for human oversight rather than taking direct action. This design ensures that while they're powerful tools, they remain safe and reliable.

Building such agents doesn't require advanced coding skills or expensive tools. With open-source frameworks like LangChain or n8n, you can set up simple yet effective agents tailored to your needs. But remember, for many tasks, a well-calibrated assistant will suffice and save you the potential risks associated with running full-fledged agents.

If you're curious about diving deeper into how to build and manage these tools effectively, there's an AI workshop coming up that explores these concepts further. It covers everything from basic setups to advanced applications in real-world scenarios for founders and small teams. If you want to go deeper, that is what the AI workshop is for. The Local AI Founder's Toolkit turns those ideas into pages you can write in.