Part of the drudgery of adulthood is the never-ending to-do list. There are the timeless culprits — the dishes, laundry and cleaning — and then there’s all that life admin, like checking when your phone plan expires, finding a cheaper internet provider, placing an online grocery order and so on.
Imagine being able to command an artificial intelligence chatbot to do all those tasks for you. That’s the promise of AI agents that automatically search the internet and complete tasks on your behalf.
Some proponents say these AI agents work well when you know what you want, but if you’re undecided or unable to best direct an agent, you’re better off doing a manual search.
While I don’t love the idea of an internet full of bots talking to bots, I did want to take ChatGPT’s new AI agent for a test run. The ChatGPT AI Agent capability was rolled out in July 2025, and has action-taking abilities to complete tasks for you. ChatGPT’s agent is available for paid users.
I’ve tried out an AI-enabled personal assistant and Klarna’s AI features, with somewhat lackluster results. Neither were life-changing, so I was curious to see what the most popular AI tool could do.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Getting set up with an AI agent
All you need is a ChatGPT paid account, and you’re good to go. Click on the plus button in the search bar and select Agent mode.
When I clicked on the agent, I could pick from pre-populated prompts and task types, which included things like “order Chinese food for delivery tomorrow on DoorDash,” “Build an LTV/CAC model for a mealkit company,” “Analyze competitor mentions from Gong call transcripts,” “Create spreadsheet on Medicare participation by state” and “Make reading list of latest top Financial Times stories.”
According to ChatGPT, I can use the agent to book appointments and even summarize the emails I received this morning. Given I’m overdue for a haircut and color, that seems like a safer testing ground than granting third-party access to Gmail.
I typed into the agent search bar like I would any other prompt: “I’m looking for a good hairdresser that specializes in natural-looking balayage hair, ideally in Montclair NJ but I’ll travel into NYC if I need. Cut and colour should be under $400 + tip.”
What I liked about the agent was being able to watch a live video of how it searched.
I could also plug extra information into the message box while it was running its search, in case I forgot to add something or wanted to change direction.
It ran its search for 9 minutes, but it didn’t feel that long because it was fascinating to watch the live video.
Once I got the results back, I realized I had made a mistake. I meant to write $400 including the tip, so I typed that into the message bar.
It didn’t complete a new search but told me to cap the service cost at $330 to allow for the tip. I liked how it gave me the price breakdown, then a notes column on specific salon tips. When I clicked on the links, it showed screenshots of where it sourced the information from. Pretty cool.
It was a lot to take in, so I asked the ChatGPT AI agent to list the options from cheapest to most expensive, including a full color and cut. As expected, it’s best to avoid NYC prices and stick to salons outside the city.
This is the list it provided:
Then, I asked which stylist to choose at Bangz and if it could book an appointment on my behalf. It gave me a rundown of stylists and told me, “If you’d like me to book an appointment for you, please let me know your preferred date and time window, as well as your contact details (name, phone number and email.)”
It was cool, but I asked how it’s able to book on my behalf. It said it uses “a secure browsing tool to interact with websites.”
“With your permission, I can navigate to a salon’s online booking page, select an appointment time and fill in your basic contact details,” it added. If you need to fill in payment info, ChatGPT’s agent will hand control back to you so that you’re not giving the AI tool your credit card details, and then you also need to confirm all the information is correct before it submits the booking.
In other words, the agent will pause actions while I input my card details, then it takes back over to complete the remaining steps.
I had a quick look at the Bangz website to confirm it takes online bookings.
The verdict on using AI agents for daily life
I was impressed. Even after just one test task, I could see a massive use case for this AI agent in my personal and professional life.
My hesitation is feeding it sensitive information like my email, address, etc. I would always take over at the booking stage to avoid having to hand over that information.
Here’s what it said when I asked it about data protection:
No matter what it says about data protection, always err on the side of caution with AI tools — especially those in beta mode.
Read the full article here