ChatGPT Agents are here; we put them to the test
2025 has seen agents coming in thick and fast, but when ChatGPT launches Agent mode, it's time to take notice.
2025: The Year AI Stops Chatting and Starts Doing
We've officially hit the tipping point. Every major AI company has launched autonomous agents in 2025 - OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta are all racing to give AI the ability to act, not just answer.
After two years of impressive conversations, AI is finally stepping out of the chat box to book your flights, manage your projects, and handle your shopping. We're witnessing AI's "iPhone moment", the shift from experimental novelty to essential productivity tool.
Agents are not only going to change how everyone interacts with computers. They’re also going to upend the software industry, bringing about the biggest revolution in computing since we went from typing commands to tapping on icons.
Bill Gates - The Future Of Agents (2023)
ChatGPT Agent Mode: Agents for Everyone
OpenAI's July launch of ChatGPT Agent Mode is the breakthrough that matters most. Why? Availability.
While competitors like Manus AI and Genspark target power users, ChatGPT Agent brings autonomous AI to 100+ million existing users for just $20/month. No waitlists, no technical setup, just click "Agent mode" and start delegating.
This democratisation changes everything. Agents aren't just for tech teams or power users anymore; they're for every marketing manager, sales director, and productivity worker.
5 Game-Changing Use Cases for ChatGPT Agent Mode
1. Travel Planning (Reports)
Ask ChatGPT to “Craft a 5-day foodie & winery itinerary for Margaret River using TripAdvisor” and it browses deep into Trip Advisor to research wineries, restaurants, and destinations, creating day-by-day schedules (and could actually make bookings with a bit more prompting). What used to take hours (or even days) now happens in minutes.
2. Smart Shopping Assistant (Shopping)
Beyond product recommendations, ChatGPT Agent aggregates data from retailers, and expert reviews to find exactly what you need. In this case, ask ChatGPT agent mode to “Find and and buy the top-rated noise-cancelling true-wireless earbuds on JB Hi-Fi” and it automatically goes away, starts researching and adding to basket, dramatically cutting down research time, and disrupting the buying journey.
3. Topic Research (Presentations)
For presentations, you can ask ChatGPT Agent mode to “Develop a go-to-market presentation for a luxury hospitality brand entering a new international market.” In minutes, it produces a polished slide deck covering target audience insights, brand positioning, competitive landscape, distribution strategy, and marketing channels. This used to require weeks of time and now it’s done in minutes.
4. Data Collation (Spreadsheets)
Collating data has just become much easier too. Ask ChatGPT Agent mode to “Retrieve the most recent publicly available data from the World Health Organisation (WHO)” and watch it auto-navigate the site, extracts relevant data, and organises it into a clean, multi-tabbed spreadsheet sorted by indicators, countries, and trends.
5. Data Integration (Enterprise Data)
ChatGPT Agent Mode can also connect to enterprise tools like Google Drive, SharePoint, Notion, GitHub, and Teams via ChatGPT Connectors. This means agents you run can autonomously pull relevant files, scan calendars, summarise documents, and cross-reference data from Gmail, Linear, or HubSpot, all in one seamless workflow.
Far From Perfect, Some Of The Issues
Limited website access: ChatGPT Agents frequently fail to interact with many websites due to login issues, unsupported browser states, or incompatibility with dynamic content and single-page applications.
Security and privacy vulnerabilities: Agents can be susceptible to prompt injection and other hacks, and lack clear audit trails, making it risky for sensitive or critical actions. Don’t let them do your banking yet!
Inconsistent usability: Outputs from Agents often need reformatting or correction, and some tasks are easier or faster to do manually (e.g. booking an Uber, one of the OpenAI examples, can take over 15 minutes to execute!)
Underwhelming user experience: Some tasks are can be done faster with existing ChatGPT features (e.g. Deep Research), but the chatGPT ux doesn’t help you to choose the right tool.
Other Noteworthy Agents
While ChatGPT Agent Mode leads on easy availability, several other agents are worth your attention and are open to play with today.
Manus AI: A powerful multi-agent system for developers that builds full websites, apps, and dashboards from a single prompt, ideal for tech-savvy users who want maximum autonomy.
Genspark Super Agent: A creative multitool that can write, design, and even make phone calls, popular with content creators for its seamless text, voice, and video workflows.
Microsoft 365 Agents: Enterprise-grade agents integrated into Microsoft Copilot that coordinate across Teams, Outlook, Excel, and more. Built for workplace orchestration and multi-agent collaboration.
Perplexity Labs: An autonomous research agent that reads hundreds of sources to generate cited, in-depth reports—perfect for analysts and knowledge workers.
Anthropic Claude Agents: Now equipped with “computer use” features, Claude agents can control a full desktop, clicking, typing, and navigating apps like a real user, ideal for precise on-screen automation.
n8n AI Agents: DIY visual automation agents using drag-and-drop logic and LLMs, perfect for technical users who want to craft fully custom, trigger-based workflows.
The Bottom Line
Teething issues aside, we're not just watching incremental AI improvements, we're seeing the emergence of a new digital workforce. ChatGPT Agent Mode makes sophisticated automation accessible to everyone, not just early adopters with deep pockets, albeit it might not quite be ready for the big time yet.
The bigger question isn't whether AI agents are ready to transform productivity, it's how quickly will your team start using them as they mature for prime time.
Hire Time Under Tension
We work with agencies, companies and brands to elevate Customer & Employee experiences with generative AI. Our advisory team helps you to understand what is possible, and how it relates to your business. We provide training for you and your team to get the most out of generative AI apps such as ChatGPT, Adobe Firefly and Claude. Our design & technology team build bespoke gen AI tools to meet your needs. You can reach us here: www.timeundertension.ai/contact
A handful of Gen AI news
Here are five of the most interesting things we have seen and read in the last week;
Runway have given us a sneak preview of what video editing will soon look like, and it’s impressive!
Google’s ‘Ask for Me’ uses AI to call local businesses for you
Mistral released data on the environmental impacts of their LLMs
Google, OpenAI and Anthropic have each dropped expert-level AI guides for free (learn these, or you can just contact Time Under Tension for help!)
Midjourney recently released video mode, and now keyframes, allowing for greater control over output consistency - Rory Flynn gives us a great demo
Thanks for reading.