AI Agent creation

[cmh]

I have read several articles recently about a company called Klarna, and how they are replacing hundreds of employees with "AI Agents". Upon further research, it appears that most of the AI Agents are in fact a chatbot. Klara provides Buy-Now-Pay-Later services, so much of their full-time workforce is dedicated to customer service with their usury victims clients. Thus, this AI Agents is fairly easy to understand. It's basically a white-label ChatGPT. To that end, Klarna has not laid anyone off, but rather just allowed natural attrition to drop their workforce by roughly 40% from 3,500 to 2,500.

Klarna's New AI Tool Does The Work Of 700 Customer Service Reps

Klarna's new AI Assistant leverages OpenAI's Large Language Model to do the work of 700 full time customer service agents

www.forbes.com

My company builds and maintains small oil and gas refineries. I don't have an army of low-skilled people that can be replaced with a chatbot. In fact, only select people are allowed to talk to the client at all. We don't make pennies off of millions of clients... we make millions off of a handful of clients. Nonetheless, I want to integrate AI Agents into my biz as rapidly as possible.

For one, they can act as a force multiplier for my high-skilled workers. Right now we are using CustomGPT.ai loaded up with codes and standards to help our engineers with research.

That's nice, but I'd like to go a bit deeper. For that, I need something more than a simple chatbot, although the chatbot would be a great interface. Clearly, I need something that can act between various apps. The only thing I've found so far is Zapier, which purports to allow you to build little AI workflows between apps. I'm considering giving it a shot for a simple use case: an HR/Personnel chatbot that can query my company documents, and payroll provider and give the guys answers to common questions they have about hours, time off, benefits, etc.

This chatbot ideally would have its own MS Teams account too. I'm considering making this bot and passing it off as a remote work part time employee (with a fake name and pic) so that my workforce won't refuse to use it. I have found thus far that most people are incredibly resistant to change, and will not use the engineering chatbot although I have found it to be extraordinarily helpful. It typically saves me a few hours per month by knowing every engineering code under the sun.

Thoughts? Is Zapier worth a shot or do y'all have better/other ways to integrate "AI Agents" into your biz?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

. For that, I need something more than a simple chatbot, although the chatbot would be a great interface. Clearly, I need something that can act between various apps. The only thing I've found so far is Zapier, which purports to allow you to build little AI workflows between apps.

Have you tried Google AI Studio?

I hear it has the ability to some wild things on your computer, like an assistant in your office.

 

[LightHouse]

I have read several articles recently about a company called Klarna, and how they are replacing hundreds of employees with "AI Agents". Upon further research, it appears that most of the AI Agents are in fact a chatbot. Klara provides Buy-Now-Pay-Later services, so much of their full-time workforce is dedicated to customer service with their usury victims clients. Thus, this AI Agents is fairly easy to understand. It's basically a white-label ChatGPT. To that end, Klarna has not laid anyone off, but rather just allowed natural attrition to drop their workforce by roughly 40% from 3,500 to 2,500.

Klarna's New AI Tool Does The Work Of 700 Customer Service Reps

Klarna's new AI Assistant leverages OpenAI's Large Language Model to do the work of 700 full time customer service agents

www.forbes.com

My company builds and maintains small oil and gas refineries. I don't have an army of low-skilled people that can be replaced with a chatbot. In fact, only select people are allowed to talk to the client at all. We don't make pennies off of millions of clients... we make millions off of a handful of clients. Nonetheless, I want to integrate AI Agents into my biz as rapidly as possible.

For one, they can act as a force multiplier for my high-skilled workers. Right now we are using CustomGPT.ai loaded up with codes and standards to help our engineers with research.

That's nice, but I'd like to go a bit deeper. For that, I need something more than a simple chatbot, although the chatbot would be a great interface. Clearly, I need something that can act between various apps. The only thing I've found so far is Zapier, which purports to allow you to build little AI workflows between apps. I'm considering giving it a shot for a simple use case: an HR/Personnel chatbot that can query my company documents, and payroll provider and give the guys answers to common questions they have about hours, time off, benefits, etc.

This chatbot ideally would have its own MS Teams account too. I'm considering making this bot and passing it off as a remote work part time employee (with a fake name and pic) so that my workforce won't refuse to use it. I have found thus far that most people are incredibly resistant to change, and will not use the engineering chatbot although I have found it to be extraordinarily helpful. It typically saves me a few hours per month by knowing every engineering code under the sun.

Thoughts? Is Zapier worth a shot or do y'all have better/other ways to integrate "AI Agents" into your biz?

I would start from the basis of "What problem do you want to solve?"

We see this alot when people get into business, they want to use shopify and now they are looking for a product to sell.

I wouldn't fix my car by walking into the garage and deciding I want to use the 14mm wrench specifically then figure out where on the car I can fix something with it.

So in your company.... What things are both time intensive and recurring? That is usually the best area where automation can take over intially.

Once you have the problem defined, finding the solution becomes easier and more linear.

 

[BigRomeDawg]

Have all your staff track an entire week of tasks on the Delegate & Elevate worksheet.

Use that as a starting point of what to try and automate.

Then hire an automation consultant to show you what can and can't be done and help implement it faster.

I agree with @LightHouse , and great metaphor about the 14mm wrench, if you start with the tool you'll waste a lot of time trying to find things to do with it.

Once you or some of your staff have filled out the Delegate & Elevate sheet, hit me up and we can jam on some next steps.

 

[Dami-B]

Very interesting conversation.

In regards to the question, personally I'll focus on using a tool like bubble.io to build out the entire front end and backend operation, if you're considering voice agents you can look into VAPI or Bland and see how you can integrate with bubble.

Zapier is also quite formidable, but I believe for integrations like this, I've seen more people using make.com (formerly integromate) more.

Best of luck.

 

[nicolas-h]

Solutions like Zapier or Custom GPT from OpenAI have their limits, because they lock you into their ecosystem.

It's better to opt for more flexible solutions that can be integrated wherever you want: as a SaaS, a chatbot, a widget.

With advanced AI agents, you can connect several sources of knowledge to make a real nerve centre.
For example, you can :

• Connect your website, databases or platforms such as Notion.
• Integrate your CRM via API to access customer data in real time.
• Add your multimedia content (YouTube) so that the agent can extract and exploit the relevant information. This connectivity ensures that your AI is always up to date and able to respond to the needs of your teams and customers.

An effective AI agent must respond to concrete needs. Before developing it, identify :

• The key roles: Should it assist HR, answer questions from engineers, or automate administrative processes?
• Usage scenarios: For example, managing complex FAQs, creating automatic reports, or connecting different applications to simplify repetitive tasks.
• Specific tasks: A well-designed agent can transform workflows, saving time and improving efficiency.

Unlike a simple chatbot, which can only handle one instruction at a time by requiring successive confirmations, an AI agent is capable of carrying out several actions in a single interaction.

A good AI agent depends on clear prompts and training on relevant data. By using your specific content, it becomes more precise and tailored to your needs, guaranteeing optimal results.

In short, opting for flexible, multi-tasking AI agents that are well integrated into your ecosystem means you can take full advantage of their potential while adapting to your real needs.

 

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[Panos Daras]

So far, the best use case I’ve found in companies for AI agents is feeding them a whole knowledge base of the company’s SOPs. That way, new or existing employees can figure out how to perform various tasks. AI agents are also great for customer support questions. I’ve seen solutions like these in Shopify’s customer care with an AI agent.

But for computer use, I don’t see it yet. In other words, using an AI agent for computer tasks is worse than other methods, like making an API call. Just my two cents. Also, don’t trust what Klarna says. I used to work with them, and they’re full of shit.

 

[nicolas-h]

something like this?
John Doe

 

[cmh]

Have you tried Google AI Studio?

No, but I'm looking into it now.

I would start from the basis of "What problem do you want to solve?"

We see this alot when people get into business, they want to use shopify and now they are looking for a product to sell.

I wouldn't fix my car by walking into the garage and deciding I want to use the 14mm wrench specifically then figure out where on the car I can fix something with it.

Great point. The starting point for any successful engineering solution, or well-made app.

Once you or some of your staff have filled out the Delegate & Elevate sheet, hit me up and we can jam on some next steps.

I will do this over the next few weeks.

Very interesting conversation.

I'm blown away by the response and really glad I asked it. I actually asked it on X first... crickets. What a sewer.

something like this?
John Doe

Yes! Except ideally it would be in MS Teams and Outlook, basically as an MS user so that my employees could treat it like any other worker. I find that if you give them a link and a password they just won't do it.

I see that I have quite a bit of work and research to do before I respond to this thread with my next steps and efforts, but I will do my best to not let it grow cold.

 

[cmh]

I'm going to start with Baby's First AI Agent. My goal is to create an MS teams persona that my employees can ask questions to. It will respond based on the engineering books and codes that it has. We already have a chatbot that is similar, but nobody uses it.

It appears easy enough on the MS side to add your API keys once you have an AI agent built. I'm going to do a bit more research and choose between OpenAI and Claude. I've done some scripting with OpenAI and it's easy enough. Using Cursor with Claude, however, has been mindblowing.

My goal is to ditch CustomGPT.ai. It costs $100/month. My company uses no more than 30 AI calls per month. On a dollar basis it's certainly worth it, but I know we are using $5 or less in API calls.

Updates to follow.

 

[Dome]

I'm going to start with Baby's First AI Agent. My goal is to create an MS teams persona that my employees can ask questions to. It will respond based on the engineering books and codes that it has. We already have a chatbot that is similar, but nobody uses it.

It appears easy enough on the MS side to add your API keys once you have an AI agent built. I'm going to do a bit more research and choose between OpenAI and Claude. I've done some scripting with OpenAI and it's easy enough. Using Cursor with Claude, however, has been mindblowing.

My goal is to ditch CustomGPT.ai. It costs $100/month. My company uses no more than 30 AI calls per month. On a dollar basis it's certainly worth it, but I know we are using $5 or less in API calls.

Updates to follow.

You are building a chatbot and not an ai agent. An agent would be something like „hey scrape leads in niche xyz and cold mail them“. Or not?

I think what you plan to build is a Chatbot with RAG. RAG would be the „brain“ of your chatbot with your custom data.
For example: Chat with GitHub API Documentation: RAG-Powered Chatbot with Pinecone & OpenAI | n8n workflow template

You could google „chatbot rag“ + a no code tool like (make/zapier/n8n) to find good tutorials.

 

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[cmh]

Having not yet dug into it super deeply, I believe it might be possible to create "user defined functions" to extend this chatbot into a true agent.

https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/function-calling?lang=python

My current digging shows that I need to look at OpenAI's Assistants framework as it has a huge knowledge base capability through using vector databases. The Anthropic Claude ability to store lots of knowledge is quite a bit lower.

 

[cmh]

Suna - Open Source Generalist AI Agent

Suna is a fully open source AI assistant that helps you accomplish real-world tasks with ease through natural conversation.

www.suna.so

I'm getting ready to try the self-hosted version of this later on in the week. Will let y'all know how it goes. Basic jist is that it's an open-source AI agent. They make money by offering could hosted paid versions so you don't have to fool with the open source. I'll test it open source and if it's a winner I'll probably just pay for the enterprise versions for my people.

 

[Leo Hendrix]

I have read several articles recently about a company called Klarna, and how they are replacing hundreds of employees with "AI Agents". Upon further research, it appears that most of the AI Agents are in fact a chatbot. Klara provides Buy-Now-Pay-Later services, so much of their full-time workforce is dedicated to customer service with their usury victims clients. Thus, this AI Agents is fairly easy to understand. It's basically a white-label ChatGPT. To that end, Klarna has not laid anyone off, but rather just allowed natural attrition to drop their workforce by roughly 40% from 3,500 to 2,500.

Klarna's New AI Tool Does The Work Of 700 Customer Service Reps

Klarna's new AI Assistant leverages OpenAI's Large Language Model to do the work of 700 full time customer service agents

www.forbes.com

My company builds and maintains small oil and gas refineries. I don't have an army of low-skilled people that can be replaced with a chatbot. In fact, only select people are allowed to talk to the client at all. We don't make pennies off of millions of clients... we make millions off of a handful of clients. Nonetheless, I want to integrate AI Agents into my biz as rapidly as possible.

For one, they can act as a force multiplier for my high-skilled workers. Right now we are using CustomGPT.ai loaded up with codes and standards to help our engineers with research.

That's nice, but I'd like to go a bit deeper. For that, I need something more than a simple chatbot, although the chatbot would be a great interface. Clearly, I need something that can act between various apps. The only thing I've found so far is Zapier, which purports to allow you to build little AI workflows between apps. I'm considering giving it a shot for a simple use case: an HR/Personnel chatbot that can query my company documents, and payroll provider and give the guys answers to common questions they have about hours, time off, benefits, etc.

This chatbot ideally would have its own MS Teams account too. I'm considering making this bot and passing it off as a remote work part time employee (with a fake name and pic) so that my workforce won't refuse to use it. I have found thus far that most people are incredibly resistant to change, and will not use the engineering chatbot although I have found it to be extraordinarily helpful. It typically saves me a few hours per month by knowing every engineering code under the sun.

Thoughts? Is Zapier worth a shot or do y'all have better/other ways to integrate "AI Agents" into your biz?

warp & manus are quite good to get you started on building a custom tool

 

[i_like_quinoa]

I think AI agents are still under-utilised massively by blue collar industries. I built a multi-ai agent that does bid responses and I am now looking to into ones that do materials cost estimating. I feel the ones that can build effectively are the ones that have done the actual process manually and know what it takes to do the process effectively as opposed to going on chatgpt and saying "please respond to tender"

 

[nicolas-h]

Suna - Open Source Generalist AI Agent

Suna is a fully open source AI assistant that helps you accomplish real-world tasks with ease through natural conversation.

www.suna.so

I'm getting ready to try the self-hosted version of this later on in the week. Will let y'all know how it goes. Basic jist is that it's an open-source AI agent. They make money by offering could hosted paid versions so you don't have to fool with the open source. I'll test it open source and if it's a winner I'll probably just pay for the enterprise versions for my people.

Like manus.im

 

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