AI agents are taking over a wide range of tasks, from generating content to managing meetings. But how do they work exactly? These smart tools learn from data and make decisions on their own.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- What are AI agents?
- Types of AI agents and their real-world applications
- How to build an AI agent with Lindy
- The best AI tools for automating business tasks
Let’s get started by understanding how AI agents perform these incredible feats.
What are AI agents?
Simply put, AI agents are software programs that can perceive their environment, make decisions, and take action without human hand-holding.
They use data, rules, or learned patterns to respond to inputs and achieve specific goals — all of which make them a solid choice for a huge range of industries.
There are several different types:
- Reactive agents: These basic agents respond to specific inputs without maintaining any internal state or memory, basically, “If A, then B,” and nothing more.
- Goal-based agents: Focused on achieving specific outcomes, adjusting their actions based on progress.
- Utility-based agents: Prioritize actions based on a ranking system of preferences.
- Learning agents: They adapt based on experience, improving their performance over time, similar to how humans learn.
How do AI agents work?
AI agents operate by cycling through three main steps: Perception, decision-making, and action.
So this means they don’t just follow orders. They’re more like digital problem-solvers.
Here’s how they get stuff done:
- Perception: AI agents kick things off by sensing their environment, whether through data feeds, user input, or sensors.
- Decision-making: Based on what they “see,” they make decisions using rules, algorithms, or machine learning. Sometimes, it’s simple logic. Sometimes, it’s complex to learn from past experiences.
- Action: Once the decision is over and done with, the AI agent jumps into the fray, whether that’s answering a question, moving an object, or automating a job.
Check out more details about what AI agents are.
AI agents you can use today
Lindy is a no-code platform that creates custom AI agents in seconds. You can also choose from their premade AI agents to get started right away.
Let’s take a look at some Lindy tools designed to make your life easier:
Sales Agents
Lindy’s AI Sales Agent streamlines the lead management process, ensuring efficient handling of outreach and follow-ups at any time.
Here’s how:
- Automates outreach: Ditch the manual emails — this AI handles it for you.
- Follows up like clockwork: It tracks leads and nudges them at the perfect time.
- Scales with you: Whether you’ve got 10 or 1,000 leads, it keeps up, no problem.
Customer Service Chatbots
Are customer questions piling up? Lindy’s Customer Service Chatbot is always on the job — even during the graveyard shift.
Some of the things it can handle are:
- Instant responses: Handles FAQs, orders, and troubleshooting without breaking its stride. Plus, it keeps humans in the loop and passes off the baton if need be.
- Learns as it goes: The more it chats, the smarter it gets at solving problems.
- Never clocks out: This bot is always on, keeping customers happy while your team gets to breathe or handle higher-level queries.
Meeting Management & Schedulers
Forget scrambling to take hastily written, half-recollected notes after the fact. Lindy’s AI Meeting Tools are like having a stenographer sitting right by your side.
What you can do with Lindy’s suite of meeting tools:
- Summarize for you: Grab all the key points, so you don’t have to.
- Tracks tasks: Keeps an eye on follow-ups and action items.
- Schedules next steps: No more post-meeting chaos — it handles the calendar too.
Lead Generation Tools
Lindy’s Lead Generation does the hard work of finding and nurturing leads so you can put your whole energy into higher-level stuff.
Here’s how it does it:
- Find new leads: Finds potential customers while you catch up on your beauty sleep.
- Keeps them engaged: Automates follow-ups to keep leads nice and warm.
- Moves them through the funnel: Makes sure your pipeline stays full without constant effort.
Content Creation Tools
Are you staring at a blank page? Lindy’s Content Creation Tools have your back, generating blog posts and social media content while you sit back and watch.
What these tools do:
- Drafts on demand: You input ideas, Lindy writes social media, blog posts, or whatever you need.
- Optimizes for SEO: Keeps your content search-friendly without any extra effort.
- Saves you hours: Start forgetting about staring at a blinking cursor — high-quality content is ready to go in minutes.
How to build your own AI agent
Building your own AI agent with Lindy is actually super easy. User-friendliness is at the core of Lindy’s features.
Here’s how you can build your own AI agent using Lindy:
- Create your Lindy agent: Start by clicking the plus button next to "Lindies" and selecting "Start from scratch." Whether you need an agent to answer emails, handle customer support, or take care of scheduling, you'll set it up according to your needs. You can personalize the agent to suit your workflow with zero code.
- Set up triggers and conditions: Triggers tell Lindy when to jump into action, like when a new email arrives, or when the weekly meeting happens in your calendar. You can fine-tune it by adding conditions. For example, if you only want Lindy to act when a customer asks about pricing, you can set that filter up so she’ll ignore anything unrelated.
- Add knowledge and actions: This is Lindy’s bread and butter. You can link her to your knowledge base — your company website, docs, or FAQs — so she can pull relevant information. After that, you’ll assign actions like replying to emails, updating your CRM, or sending reminders.
How to choose the right AI agent for your needs
Picking the perfect AI agent doesn’t have to be tricky.
Here’s what to keep in mind when figuring out what works best for you:
- How complex are the jobs? Need your AI to handle simple stuff like scheduling or answering basic questions? Go for something like a chatbot or meeting assistant. If you're dealing with deeper tasks like data analysis or research, you’ll want a smarter agent.
- Does it need to learn on the job? Some AI agents just get smarter the more they work. If you need something that grows with you, Lindy’s integrations and ability to sync up from your knowledge base are perfect — she learns from your data and keeps getting better at answering more complex stuff.
- Will it play connect with your current tools? If you’re using platforms like Slack, Google Docs, or Notion, make sure your AI agent can plug right in. Lindy’s agents integrate extra well with the most popular tools, making setup super easy. Check out the full integrations list here.
Summing up
So, hopefully, you won’t have that blank look on your face when someone asks you, “How do AI agents work?”
Now, you’re armed with the knowledge to reply confidently — and with plenty of detail.
Want to bring the best of AI agents to your business? Then, read on to find out more.
Why Lindy is your best choice for building and using AI agents
Lindy grows right along with you, becoming an expert and adapting to your needs.
Here’s why you should choose Lindy:
- Natural conversation flow: Lindy chats like a human, picking up on context and delivering smooth interactions.
- Gets smarter: Lindy learns from your feedback and refines its responses over time.
- Customizable without coding: Set up Lindy to handle tasks your way, with or without templates.
- Easy integrations: Lindy connects quickly to your favorite tools, from your CRM and email to project management.
- Multiple AI agents: Let different Lindies handle customer support, lead generation, or data analysis, and watch them pool their brains to work together as a team.
- Keeps CRM clean: Automatically updates contacts, cleans up duplicates, and fills in the gaps, so your data’s always fresh.
- 24/7 support: Lindy chatbots are always on call, ready to handle customer inquiries around the clock.
- Sell more: Lindy listens in on sales conversations and delivers insights to help your team close more deals.
