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AI agent examples: what people really use them for
An AI agent is software that takes a goal, uses tools like email, a browser or code, and does the steps itself. Here are real examples, grouped by job, each with the source so you can check it. I've picked the most-discussed ones from 1086 cases across 19 topics.
Automation
- Use Claude Code in a commercial real estate business
- Robots folding napkins for Din Tai Fung
- Look up user records and update downstream steps
Business & Startups
- Five agents read customer order emails for Unilever
- A garage's AI receptionist books MOTs while mechanics work
- An agent given EUR 50 to make money reports 0 sales after 48 sessions
Customer Support
- Draft replies and promo codes for L'Oréal support advisors
- Phone agents handle Anker's first-line support calls
- A Texas licensing agent answers in English and Spanish, any hour
Design & Creative
- Draft social posts from trending topics for approval
- Generate ads from a website URL
- Prepare, plan, execute, review for non-code work
DevOps & Infra
- Agents cut each service migration from 3 months to 2 weeks
- Sort nightly test failures into bugs, flakes and infra problems
- An agent answers 'where is my drive data?' tickets at Mobileye
Email & Inbox
- Cancel and refund subscriptions by searching email and calling
- Track subscriptions and renewals from Gmail
- Run grocery, email and photo tasks through Comet browser
Finance
- Negotiate a lower fiber bill with AT&T chat
- Cut a hospital bill using Claude's Medicare price analysis
- Get a billing dispute refunded by a support agent
Home & Family
- Set up nightly smart-home routines by voice
- Order family groceries from fridge contents
- Family menu to doorstep delivery
Knowledge & Notes
- Run a nutrition bot for meal decisions and calorie logging
- Turn voice notes into Linear tickets and review analytics
- Turn stroller voice notes into publishable posts
Media & Content
- Design product labels and produce SDS sheets
- Cancel Adobe subscription without early termination fee
- Apply to 50 jobs in under 30 minutes
Personal Assistant
- Work queue that runs while you're offline
- Run a business assistant that resumes project work
- Run a Monday competitor-monitoring brief from job listings
Personal Files
- Organize Downloads and find duplicates
- Clear local disk space with a guided plan
- Cleaning up 194 GB of photos
Productivity
- Watch weekly deals and buy regular items
- Triage care, estimate visit cost, and negotiate medical bills
- Source suppliers and negotiate deals overnight
Research & Data
- 50 AI agents in Minecraft built a government, a ration ledger and a no-blame inquiry about a chicken
- Speed up multifamily deal research and property summaries
- Ask why a plant-breeding workflow failed and get an answer
Sales & Marketing
- Summarize service calls and find local customers
- A salon owner's honest six months with a WhatsApp booking bot
- Anthropic's own sales funnel starts with an agent
Shopping
- Negotiate a car purchase between dealers
- Negotiate bills, handle returns and cancel subscriptions
- Cancel an Amazon subscription and get a refund
Software Development
- A contractor's personal Claude Code agent allegedly ran inside a secure Pentagon system for two months
- Claude Code's 3-word status line reportedly burns 15 to 20% of tokens
- Rakuten rolls Claude agents out to four departments in a week
Travel & Booking
- Win a flight refund dispute
- Rebook a work flight to save money
- Book the best-priced flight and later refund it
How to read these
Each case links to the original post or report. Results come from the people involved, not from me, and I haven't re-run them. Where something went wrong I say so on the AI agent fails page.
Want more? Browse all 1086 cases, copy a prompt, or see this week's agent stories.