AI agents: Your new secret service

If you’re leading a marketing or sales function right now, chances are your inbox is already brimming with AI hype. Everyone has a new tool, a smarter platform, or a generative content engine that promises to change the game. But the latest development quietly turning heads? AI agents – or agentic AI. If someone on your team has ever muttered, “If only we had another person to do this,” there’s a good chance what you actually need is an AI agent.

Forget the gimmicks. These aren’t shiny toys or clever chatbots. AI agents are designed to act on your behalf – autonomously executing tasks, gathering information, or triggering workflows with minimal human oversight. Think of them as your team’s invisible secret service: working behind the scenes to make things happen faster, smarter, and at scale.

What is an AI agent?

In simple terms, an AI agent is a software entity that can perceive its environment, make decisions, and take action based on a defined goal. Unlike traditional automation scripts, AI agents are adaptive. They can learn, adjust their behaviour, and even interact with other agents or systems to complete more complex tasks.

There are different categories of AI agents, including:

• Reactive agents: Respond to inputs without storing past interactions. Great for real-time responses.
• Model-based agents: Have a representation of their environment, enabling more thoughtful decision-making.
• Goal-based agents: Plan their actions based on desired outcomes.
• Learning agents: Improve over time through feedback and experience.

Most emerging AI agents combine elements of these types, blending responsiveness with long-term utility.

But there’s another layer worth considering: how agents work together.

You can deploy:

• Single-task agents that perform one specific job very well – ideal for clear, rule-based actions like scheduling or tagging leads.
• Parallel agents that each focus on separate tasks but operate simultaneously – useful for campaign orchestration or multi-step workflows.
• Manager agents that oversee and coordinate a team of task-specific agents – dynamically deciding which to activate and when, and reporting back with a summarised view. This structure mimics how a good team leader delegates work and keeps things moving.

The model you choose depends on the complexity of your workflows, how much autonomy you want to give the system, and where human oversight still adds the most value.

From concept to capability: why AI agents matter now

The timing isn’t random. Several forces are converging:

• Massive advances in LLMs (like GPT-4) have made it easier for machines to understand context, nuance, and intent.
• API-rich martech stacks mean agents can plug into the tools you already use.
• Fragmented buyer journeys and dark funnel behaviour are creating new pressure points that manual teams can’t keep up with.

Today, AI agents can offer something different: execution, not just insight. Where traditional AI helped marketers and sales teams analyse data or generate ideas, AI agents help you act.

And they don’t stop there. The best agents are built to learn. With every interaction, they get smarter – adjusting behaviours, refining predictions, and increasing accuracy over time. That adaptability makes them incredibly valuable in fast-moving, unpredictable markets.

They also integrate seamlessly across the entire customer journey – from first touchpoint to renewal. Used right, they can deliver not just moments of efficiency, but a consistently intelligent experience that keeps prospects moving and customers loyal.

How could marketing teams use AI agents?

Imagine a world where:

• Your AI agent monitors competitor websites and flags positioning shifts within minutes.
• Another agent segments your CRM based on behavioural signals, and triggers personalised nurture campaigns.
• A third handles the orchestration of webinars – from scheduling invites to creating and deploying follow-up content.
• And when someone engages with your content, an AI agent springs into action. It researches the lead and their account, enriches the data, updates your CRM, identifies the likely buying committee, and kicks off a tailored nurture sequence. It even sends out smart DMs and emails, checking in with you only where needed. One morning, you open your calendar and see a meeting booked. That was your agent, working overnight.

These aren’t pipe dreams. We’re actively speaking with our clients about their current challenges, and designing just these kinds of time-saving solutions together with them – turning ambition into automation, without the bloat.

For sales teams, it’s about velocity

Sales agents (not the human kind) can:

• Track and respond to buyer intent signals in real time
• Draft tailored follow-up emails after meetings, using CRM notes
• Keep your pipeline clean by chasing missing data or updating deal stages automatically

But there’s even more potential when agents act as your sales co-pilot.

Think about the prep work before a call – often repetitive, always time-consuming. What if all a sales rep needed to do was drop a LinkedIn profile into a system?

• One agent starts researching the contact: role, background, recent activity.
• Another analyses the account: industry shifts, company size, competitors.
• A third reviews all inputs and identifies where your business could add value.
• Then another steps in to anticipate likely objections or concerns based on job title, company profile, and past data – and generates strategic responses to each.
• Finally, a summary agent pulls it all together into a digestible cheat sheet, complete with a sample call script tailored to that individual.

All done in minutes. All ready before the sales rep even finishes their coffee.

In an environment where speed and relevance drive conversions, having an AI agent that’s always on can make the difference between closing and losing.

The opportunity (and responsibility) for marketing leaders

Budget freezes. Headcount caps. Endless to-do lists. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. For many marketing and sales leaders, growing ambition is crashing into shrinking resource. AI agents aren’t here to replace your team – they’re here to amplify it. By offloading the repetitive, time-consuming, or admin-heavy tasks, AI agents free up your people to focus on the high-impact, strategic work they’re best at.

In short? You don’t need to hire another person. You need an agent that can help your existing team move faster, work smarter, and deliver more – without the overhead.

But building them requires more than plugging into ChatGPT. It demands:

• Clear task definition and role mapping
• Robust training data and system integration
• A human-in-the-loop design to ensure quality and control

This is where many marketing teams stumble. There’s enthusiasm, but no strategy. Agents get deployed as experiments rather than assets. Resulting in another abandoned AI initiative.

They’re powerful – but clear governance matters. Always define boundaries and build in human review where decisions involve nuance, judgement, or customer experience. Especially early on.

A single-task agent automating lead scoring? Great. An agent responding to a major client escalation without human eyes? Probably not.

The trick is knowing where to automate, and where to stay human.