AI assistant, wrapper app or agent: which one do you actually need?

Step by step

What AI can and cannot do here

AI tools can draft, summarise, sort and explain. Some can also take steps for you. None of them know your business unless you tell them, and all of them can be wrong. A tool that does more on its own needs more of your supervision, not less.

Your part

You decide the task, what the tool may see, what it may do, and whether the result is good enough to use. Paying for a tool does not move that responsibility to the tool.

Step 1: Know the three kinds of tool

• An AI assistant is a chat tool. You write or upload something, it answers, and you decide what to do with the answer. This is what most people mean by “using AI”.
• A wrapper app is a product built on top of an assistant’s technology, with its own screen and a ready-made task, such as writing product descriptions or tidying a CV. It can save you from writing instructions yourself, and it usually costs money. Underneath, it often does what a good instruction in an assistant could do.
• An agent is a tool that works through several steps toward a goal with less step-by-step instruction from you. It may read files, search, fill in forms or send messages. Because it can act, a mistake can have real effects.

Step 2: Start with the assistant

For most small tasks (drafting a reply, tidying notes, setting up a price sheet, summarising a page), a free assistant with a clear instruction is enough. Try your task there first. Our other guides show how.

Step 3: Know when a wrapper app may be worth it

Consider one only if all of these are true:

1. You do the same task often, every week or more.
2. You tried the free assistant properly and it was not enough, or the task is too fiddly for you to repeat by hand.
3. The price is clear and you can cancel easily.
4. The time it saves is worth more than it costs you.

Step 4: Ask these questions before paying for anything

1. What exactly does it do that the free assistant does not?
2. What is the full cost, and does it renew by itself? How do I cancel?
3. Can I pay in a way that works for me, and in my own currency?
4. What data does it see, and where does it go? Can I delete it?
5. Is there a free trial I can test on a real task?
6. What happens to my work if the tool shuts down?

Step 5: Treat agents carefully

An agent can be useful for a repeated, low-risk task, such as sorting a list or preparing a draft for you to approve. Before you use one:

• Start with a task where a mistake is cheap and easy to undo.
• Give it the least access it needs. Do not connect your main email, bank or payment accounts.
• Make it ask for your approval before it sends, deletes, posts or spends anything.
• Check its first results by hand, and keep checking.

If a task is rare, important or involves money or customers’ private details, do it yourself, or use an assistant and approve every step.

Step 6: Test on one task

I do this task often: [describe it in one or two sentences]. Show me the simplest way to do it with a free AI assistant, step by step. Then tell me what I would still need to check myself.

Try the steps it gives you. If the result is good enough, you may not need to pay for anything.

Troubleshooting

• A tool promises a lot and shows no examples: ask for a trial on your own task, or leave it.
• You already pay for several tools: list what each one does for you, keep the one you actually use, and cancel the rest.
• An agent did something you did not expect: stop it, remove its access, and review what it changed.

Value check

After a month, write down what you paid, how often you used the tool, and how much time it saved. If you did not use it, cancel it.