What AI Agents Can Do: "AI That Thinks and Acts on Its Own" Will Change How We Work

1. Introduction: What Is This Often-Heard Term "AI Agent" Lately?

The term "AI agent," which has recently become common in news and social media, including ChatGPT and Copilot. Many people might be wondering, "It sounds impressive, but what exactly can it do?"

In fact, AI is gradually making its way into our work and daily lives. At the center of this is what is called an "AI agent."

This article clearly introduces the basics of "What is an AI agent?", what it can actually do, and how it will change the way we work.

2. What is an AI Agent?

This article briefly introduces the four LLMs covered.

Conventional AI was specialized for specific tasks, accurately performing a single task such as "classifying images" or "summarizing text," making it a "craftsman-like AI." In contrast, AI agents are more "active" AIs that "break down tasks by themselves and execute procedures using necessary tools to achieve objectives."

To put it simply, it is similar to what humans would call an "assistant" or "secretary," and it is gaining attention not as a mere tool but as a "reliable presence that can act on its own."

3. What AI Agents Can Do (Everyday Examples)

So, what can AI agents do?

First, let's look at some easy-to-imagine examples from everyday life.

3-1. They plan your trips for you

For example, if you ask an AI agent, "I want to take a 2-day, 1-night trip to Kyoto this weekend, so please plan a sightseeing itinerary," it will research transportation options such as the Shinkansen and buses based on your preferred dates and departure location. Furthermore, it will propose a feasible schedule considering factors like the opening hours of local tourist spots, crowd levels, and weather forecasts. Regarding dining, it may automatically select highly rated restaurants and popular cafes, even providing reservation links. For accommodation, if you specify your budget and preferred area, it will suggest hotels that meet your criteria, so you don't have to browse multiple sites yourself. What’s amazing about AI agents is that they consistently support you from the initial consultation to creating a detailed plan, just like a human travel agency staff member.

3-2. Keeps your household account book

By simply sending a photo of your receipt to the AI agent, it reads the date, items, amounts, and automatically categorizes and records them. The data, organized by categories such as food expenses, daily necessities, and transportation costs, is visualized as monthly spending graphs, allowing you to see at a glance how you are using your money. It also compares with the previous month and average spending, so you can quickly notice trends like "eating out more this month." Some agents even provide saving advice based on your spending patterns, such as "Would you like to review your subscription to 〇〇?"

3-3. Works as Your Own “Secretary”

Among AI agents, some have emerged that serve as a “digital secretary” for business professionals. For example, they organize incoming emails that require replies in order of priority and notify you to prevent any oversight. They can also coordinate schedules among multiple members and automatically propose meeting dates, as well as draft minutes based on the meeting audio. These tasks are typically time-consuming and mundane, but by having AI take over these duties, an environment is being created where you can focus more on important work.

All of these are tasks that humans have traditionally done by "researching on their own," "thinking," and "organizing." AI can now perform these at a certain standard. This is a major characteristic of AI agents.

4. Examples of Use in Business Scenes and How Our Work Changes

From here, let's take a look at how AI agents are being utilized in the business field. Some companies have already begun trial or full-scale implementation.

4-1. Utilization in Sales and Marketing Departments

Lead Prioritization
In sales activities, it is crucial to identify which prospective customers (leads) are most likely to result in a successful deal. AI agents analyze customer behavior history and attribute information, scoring leads in order of their likelihood to close. This enables sales representatives to more easily decide "who to approach and when," allowing for more efficient sales activities.

Drafting Sales Email Copy
AI agents also assist in creating sales emails. Taking into account the recipient's industry and the history of previous interactions, they automatically generate copy tailored to the purpose, such as initial proposals, follow-ups, or re-proposals. This shortens the time required to compose emails while enabling high-quality communication customized to the recipient.

Support for Creating Sales Reports
The AI agent automatically records and organizes the sales meetings and visits conducted by sales representatives, compiling them into a draft sales report. For example, it extracts key points from voice memos or short text inputs and clearly arranges necessary information such as dates and proposal details. This significantly reduces the effort required to create daily reports and helps maintain a consistent quality of reporting.

4-2. Utilization in Administrative, HR, and General Affairs Operations

Internal FAQ Response Agent
Routine inquiries from within the company, such as "How do I apply for paid leave?" or "What is the deadline for expense reimbursement?", are surprisingly time-consuming tasks. AI agents respond automatically to these questions 24/7, providing accurate answers promptly. This allows HR and general affairs staff to avoid repetitive responses and focus on more important tasks.

Attendance and Expense Checks
Systems where AI agents perform initial content verification and rule checks on attendance records and applications for transportation and business trip expenses are also becoming more widespread. For example, if there are any deficiencies or irregularities in the application details, the AI automatically detects them, issues alerts, and notifies the person in charge. This not only reduces the effort required for verification tasks but also leads to early detection of errors and fraudulent applications.

4-3. Support in Project Management

Automatic Progress Checks and Alerts
AI agents regularly monitor the progress status of project tasks and automatically detect parts that are behind schedule. If delays or signs of problems are observed, real-time alerts are sent to the person in charge or the project leader. This enables early response and reduces the overall risk of project delays.

Minutes Creation and Action Organization
There is an increasing number of AI agents that transcribe meeting audio in real time and automatically create the framework of the minutes. Furthermore, they extract ToDos and decisions that need to be addressed by the next meeting from the spoken content and organize them into a list. These features facilitate smooth progress management after meetings and reduce misunderstandings among those responsible.

5. How Will Work Styles Change?

As these examples show, AI agents are not just "simple automation of tasks."

Traditionally, the premise was that "humans operate AI," but AI agents only require humans to convey the objectives, and then the AI takes action. In other words, the era is beginning where AI acts as a "team member who works for you," collaborating alongside us.

This will gradually free us from tasks such as "routine work," "research, organization, and data entry," allowing us to spend more time on "human-like work" such as decision-making, creativity, and dialogue.
For example,

· Consider the customer's fundamental issues
· Build relationships with team members
· Try out new ideas

This allows us to spend more time on the "value that only humans can provide."

6. Summary: AI Agents Become "Colleagues Who Work Together"

AI agents are entities that guide us from days overwhelmed by our "to-do lists" to a way of working where we can focus on "thinking, choosing, and creating."

Although there are still areas under development, in the future it will become commonplace for "humans" and "AI agents" to work together by sharing roles across various tasks.

We too may be required to positively embrace such changes and gradually acquire the ability to "work together with AI."

7. Human Science Annotation, LLM RAG Data Structuring Agency Service

Over 48 million pieces of training data created

At Human Science, we are involved in AI model development projects across various industries, starting with natural language processing, including medical support, automotive, IT, manufacturing, and construction. Through direct transactions with many companies, including GAFAM, we have provided over 48 million high-quality training data. We handle a wide range of training data creation, data labeling, and data structuring, from small-scale projects to long-term large projects with a team of 150 annotators, regardless of the industry.

Resource management without crowdsourcing

At Human Science, we do not use crowdsourcing. Instead, projects are handled by personnel who are contracted with us directly. Based on a solid understanding of each member's practical experience and their evaluations from previous projects, we form teams that can deliver maximum performance.

Not only for creating training data but also supports the creation and structuring of generative AI LLM datasets

In addition to creating labeled and identified training data for data organization, we also support the structuring of document data for generative AI and LLM RAG construction. Since our founding, we have been engaged in manual production as a primary business and service, leveraging our unique know-how gained from extensive knowledge of various document structures to provide optimal solutions.

Secure room available on-site

Within our Shinjuku office at Human Science, we have secure rooms that meet ISMS standards. Therefore, we can guarantee security, even for projects that include highly confidential data. We consider the preservation of confidentiality to be extremely important for all projects. When working remotely as well, our information security management system has received high praise from clients, because not only do we implement hardware measures, we continuously provide security training to our personnel.

That is all.