AI agents go beyond chat

OpenAI has started rolling out “workspace agents” in ChatGPT, pushing its tools from chat replies into software that can run team workflows on its own. (openai.com) OpenAI said on April 22 that the agents are powered by Codex, run in the cloud, and can keep working after a user closes the chat window. The company said teams can share one agent across an organization and use it in ChatGPT or Slack. (openai.com) A workflow agent is software that follows a set process across connected tools, like pulling files from Google Drive, drafting a report, and posting the result in Slack. OpenAI said its version is aimed at repeatable office tasks rather than one-off prompts. (openai.com) OpenAI is framing the release as the next step after custom GPTs, which mostly stayed inside a chat box. Its business page says workspace agents can connect to Slack, Google Drive, Microsoft SharePoint, and other enterprise systems under admin controls. (openai.com) The shift is moving beyond writing text to taking actions in company software, which raises the stakes on permissions, audit trails, and mistakes. OpenAI said the agents operate within organizational controls, but the product pitch centers on handing off long-running tasks that people used to supervise directly. (openai.com) Payments companies are building for the same model. Visa said on April 8 that its Intelligent Commerce Connect system is in pilot with partners including Amazon Web Services, Highnote, Mesh, Payabli, and Sumvin so artificial intelligence agents can initiate purchases through a single integration. (visa.com) Visa said the product includes tokenization, authentication, and spend controls, which are the guardrails that decide what an agent is allowed to buy and how a merchant verifies the request. Amazon Web Services said developers can pair the system with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore to build agents that handle shopping and travel flows from search to payment. (visa.com; aws.amazon.com) Warnings about automation are arriving alongside the launches. In April, Disabled American Veterans said it wanted answers from the Department of Veterans Affairs on how an artificial intelligence review tool was developed, tested, and safeguarded before it touched veterans’ benefits records. (dav.org) That split — more autonomy from vendors, more demands for proof from users and watchdogs — is defining this phase of the market. The question is no longer whether a chatbot can answer; it is whether an agent can act inside real systems without creating new errors, costs, or liabilities. (openai.com; visa.com; dav.org)