I’ve spent uncountable hours playing with AI assistants, seeing which ones are useful and in what way. Recently, that’s meant looking at the kind of automated agents that can go out online and do things on your behalf. That might mean looking up information on the web, collating your email history, or even booking a reservation on your behalf. These AI agents include stand-alone tools and features within existing services.
They each have their own flavor and can suit different needs and interests. After endless testing, I’ve come up with a list of five AI agents that I think are worth your time, each capable of something slightly different.
ChatGPT’s Deep Research
ChatGPT’s Deep Research feature is what happens when an AI decides to go full Sherlock Holmes on a topic. You ask it to dig into anything from “How does climate change impact real estate prices?” to “Why do pigeons always look like they’re judging me?” and it scours available sources, compiling a report that feels like the work of a passionate grad student. Unlike a traditional chatbot, this feature takes its time (anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour) to really get into the nitty-gritty, cross-referencing data and presenting a well-structured analysis. It’s a lifesaver when you need a well-researched report but it can be a little over the top in its thoroughness.
Google Gemini’s Deep Research
Usefulness doesn’t mean creativity in naming, so Google Gemini has a very similar feature and the same name as ChatGPT’s offering. That doesn’t make it exactly the same, though. Gemini’s Deep Research feature also makes whole spreadsheets you can outsource and a full citation and source sheet at the end of its report.
It can be a little overwhelming, but it’s still a very powerful tool. It’s also great at the more casual queries, even if it’s odd to get such a thorough response to questions like, “Find me the best affordable running shoes that aren’t ugly, and explain why they’re good.” But, if you want a mix of expert reviews, Reddit opinions, and user testimonials, plus links to articles with images of stylish running shoes under $100, it’s pretty great.
Proxy 1.0
Proxy 1.0 by Convergence AI is what happens when an AI agent decides to stop just answering questions and actually take over for you on the internet. Proxy is designed to act like you in terms of clicking, typing, and carrying out tasks online.
You can literally watch Proxy move a mouse in a window and write out website addresses. This means that it can handle tasks on platforms that don’t officially support AI automation, making it far more versatile than most of its competitors. That said, because Proxy is trying to interact with the web in a human-like way, it occasionally gets tripped up by poorly designed websites, weird pop-ups, or its mortal enemy, CAPTCHAs. There are also times when it will confidently announce that a task has been completed, only for you to find out that something went wrong in the final step, leaving you with a half-booked flight or a mysteriously missing order confirmation.
But, if you ask it to say, “Book a table for two at an Italian restaurant in downtown Manhattan for tomorrow at 7 PM,” Proxy would search for one with an online reservation system and try to get it for you under your own name. If the system encountered a CAPTCHA, however, Proxy would pause and ask you to step in.
Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot is the corporate overachiever of AI assistants, embedded right into Microsoft 365 to help you draft emails, summarize reports, and generally make you look more competent at work than you actually are. If you live in spreadsheets and PowerPoints, Copilot is like that one coworker who always volunteers to do the extra slides.
It’s genuinely useful for productivity, but it sometimes tries a little too hard, inserting weirdly formal phrasing into emails or misunderstanding the tone of your documents. Also, if you’re not a Microsoft ecosystem devotee, it won’t be as helpful. But it can be great at helping look up ways to translate with the most modern slang, should you want to understand an email from someone a couple of generations above or below you, and find out if they are being passive-aggressive or just typing from their phone while walking.
Browser Use
Browser Use is a lot like Proxy in that it can do a lot of the things you’re too busy (or lazy) to do yourself. It’s like an invisible human assistant who lives in the cloud, tirelessly working through web pages while you sit back and watch. Or, ideally, don’t watch at all.
The biggest perk is, like with Proxy, you can simply describe a task, and it will navigate online and complete the work for you. That might mean doing research and making a report, reserving a flight, or figuring out the best TV to buy and putting in an order when it spots a sale online. The same CAPTCHA issue is there, as the AI isn’t always good at picking out crosswalks in blurry photos, but it’s amazing how much you can get done when you don’t have to write everything out yourself manually.
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erichs211@gmail.com (Eric Hal Schwartz)
