An agent is software that does work on its own: a support agent answering tickets, a coding agent raising pull requests, a research agent compiling briefs. Nobody "uses" it the way they use ChatGPT, so The AI Pulse asks the people assigned to it about its work instead: whether they worked with it today, how much time it saved them, and how good its work was. The vendor's dashboard tells you how many tasks it completed. Whether it's worth keeping is a question for the people who check its work.
Marking a tool as an agentLink to this section
When you add or edit a tool under Governance → AI tools, Tool or agent offers Software people use and An agent that works on its own. Choose the agent option and two things change:
- There are no websites to enter. People don't open an agent in a browser tab, so the extension has no site to show its decision on.
- Assignment means something different. For ordinary software, assigning a person means "you use this". For an agent, it means "you check this agent's output". Assign the people who review, correct or approve what the agent produces.
Once a tool has pulse answers, Tool or agent is fixed. To change it, add the tool again as a new entry.
Giving it a costLink to this section
Agents usually aren't paid for by the person, so under Billing choose Flat fee, enter what the agent costs the organisation and choose the billing period, monthly or annual. Reports then use that figure as the agent's monthly cost, and on Pro ROI uses it directly. See Setting tool costs and why it matters.
Asking the people who check its workLink to this section
The AI Pulse asks the people assigned to an agent about it on its usual schedule (see The AI Pulse explained). To ask them more, build a custom pulse about that tool and assign it to them (Pro). Questions that work well: how often they had to step in and fix its work, how good its output is compared with what you'd expect from a person, and whether, if it were their call, they'd keep it running. See Building a custom pulse.
Read the answers beside the agent's cost. If most reviewers would keep the agent with changes, keep it and work through their fixes. If half say turn it off, talk about it before the next invoice.
On an anonymous pulse, Owners and Admins see the shares, and single answers without names.
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