Will the real AI agent please stand up?

These days, everything’s an “AI agent.”

Your chatbot? Agent. That email tool? Agent. That meeting scheduler that double-booked you? Clearly a double agent. The thing that just copied text from one place to another? Super advanced agent, obviously.

With “agent” slapped onto every AI tool, the term has become so watered down that it’s losing meaning.

But who am I to decide what counts as a real AI agent? I’ll leave that to those with a higher pay grade.

That said, I still need a way to make sense of it all.

One framework that stuck with me comes from Paul Roetzer (CEO of the Marketing AI Institute). He suggests that a true AI agent works independently, on our behalf, across five key functions:

• Set goals

• Make plans

• Execute tasks

• Learn from results

• Analyze outcomes

But most so-called “agents” today only handle execution on their own. A few can do planning or analysis. But I’ve yet to see one that does all five, particularly setting its own goals.

While research projects like AI agents forming societies in Minecraft (as discussed by Eric Vyacheslav here) hint at where we’re headed, they’re still experimental, not commercial AI solutions.

So now, when someone tells me they have an “agent,” I just ask: Which of these five capabilities does it actually have?

That simple question cuts through the hype without needing a PhD in AI.

Hope it helps you too!

What’s the most interesting “AI agent” capability you’ve seen recently?

#AIAgents #AITechStack #AITools #Autonomous #AIAssistants

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I find it ironic that we say AI should augment human intelligence. Yet we ask AI to think for us.

Using AI as a thinking partner, not as a replacement for our own ideas, is one of the most underrated uses of AI today.

In my latest newsletter, I share my real conversations with Claude and ChatGPT that uncovered fresh insights about marketing’s future:

• AI will form opinions about your brand before humans do

• Traditional channel attribution won’t work anymore

• Companies creating real value will win (not those gaming the system)

• You need a “trust signal portfolio” across all touchpoints

The best AI-enhanced work starts with your perspective. Not the other way around.

You’ll also get Jonathan Kvarfordt’s practical prompts you can use immediately to turn AI into your thinking partner.

Thank you Jonathan M K. and Wendy W. for sharing your real life approaches to AI collaboration.

Have you tried using AI as a thought partner or collaborating with multiple AIs? Share what worked or what didn’t.

For those who prefer audio, an AI podcast version of this newsletter is available. See link in the comments.

#AICollaboration #AIPrompts #AIinMarketing #Trust #MarketingAttribution

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