AI agent vs chatbot vs automation: the agent task and the cheat sheet
(From the Stepthrough lesson "AI Agent vs Chatbot vs Automation". Oak Hill Pet Grooming and its customers are made up.)

THE AGENT TASK (paste it into ChatGPT with Work selected)
Here are this month's open invoices. Find every customer who is more than 14 days overdue and draft a short, friendly payment reminder for each one, with their name, invoice number and amount. If an invoice has a note or a partial payment, don't draft a reminder: flag it for me instead. Sign them "Tara, Oak Hill Pet Grooming". Don't send anything.

Open invoices (today is Sept 29):
#1041  Priya Shah      $85   due Aug 30
#1043  Ben Carter      $120  due Sept 2   note: paid $60 on Sept 20
#1046  Luis Romero     $65   due Sept 8
#1049  Ana Kowalski    $95   due Sept 11
#1052  Sam Okafor      $70   due Sept 22
#1053  Jo Whitfield    $110  due Sept 26

A good task has four parts: the goal, the information it needs, the judgment calls you want made, and hard limits ("Don't send anything").

THE CHEAT SHEET
Chatbot: answers when you ask. You do the rest.
  Use for: writing, ideas, explaining, one-off questions.
  Watch: it only knows what you tell it. Check facts.
Automation: follows fixed rules you set up, every time, on its own.
  Use for: the same job over and over: form to sheet, daily report.
  Watch: it never uses judgment. Odd cases go through anyway.
AI agent: gets a goal, decides the steps and uses tools to do them.
  Use for: jobs with some judgment: sort, look things up, draft.
  Watch: give clear limits and approve anything that goes out.