Most people still use AI like a smarter search engine. Ask a question, get an answer.
AI agents go a step further. They can actually do the work.
Meta’s new Muse is a good example. Instead of asking it what you should do next, you can give it a job and let it take actions across websites and connected apps.
I tested this with something simple: my fantasy football team.
I set Muse up to automatically review my team each week, look at available players, make lineup changes and evaluate trades. I don’t have to remember to check everything myself.
Either Muse has been really lucky or it is pretty good at the job. I’ve been tied for first place for the past three weeks.
Fantasy football is obviously not running a business, but the concept is the same.
Small businesses usually don’t have enough people.
Why this matters for small businesses
The owner may also be handling marketing, customer follow-up, bookkeeping, scheduling, social media and dozens of other tasks.
Agents could take over pieces of that work.
A business could eventually tell an agent:
“Every Monday, review last week’s sales, identify products that are slowing down, check our advertising results and recommend what we should change.”
Or:
“Check new leads every morning, research the company, prepare a follow-up email and remind me when someone hasn’t responded.”
Meta is already positioning Muse for small businesses with connections to services including Shopify, QuickBooks, Canva, Slack, Stripe, Asana, Facebook and Instagram.
That is where agents become much more interesting than a chatbot.
ChatGPT or another AI might help you write the email.
An agent can potentially identify who needs the email, prepare it, schedule the follow-up and continue the process.
Small companies may benefit the most
Large companies already have employees and software handling many of these jobs.
Small businesses often don’t.
Agents could give a five-person company capabilities that previously required several more employees or expensive outside vendors.
That doesn’t mean eliminating people. It means using people for work that actually requires judgment, relationships and experience instead of spending hours moving information between systems.
There are risks. Giving an AI permission to access accounts, communicate with customers or spend money requires clear controls and human approval.
But the direction is becoming clearer.
AI started by helping us create things.
Agents are starting to do things for us.
For small businesses, that could be one of the most useful changes AI has produced yet.
After publishing this The New York Post shared this article that has great small business examples.
