August 31, 2025 by Daniel Ichbiah and Futura Team

There’s a new buzzword in tech—AI agents. Think of them as hyper-efficient virtual assistants, just waiting for your go-ahead to jump into action. Whether it’s tracking down a rare item, optimizing your commute, or digging into market trends, ChatGPT Agent supercharges what we thought generative AI could do. At your command—ready, set, go!

If you had to define tools like Manus or Perplexity Labs in a nutshell, it would be this: “at your service.” It’s like having a digital sidekick, always on standby, primed to carry out your request. What’s unique is that you don’t need to micromanage. You simply tell it what you want, and off it goes.

Run into a snag? No problem. The agent figures out workarounds on its own and only checks in if it’s absolutely stuck—like when it needs a password. You’d do the same in real life, right?

Originally, ChatGPT introduced a tool called Auto-GPT, which turned out to be a bit of a head-scratcher for many users. So they pivoted and introduced two new modes:
• One called Deep Search Mode, great for in-depth web research
• Another, Operator Mode, mostly tested in-house or by select users. This one mimicked human actions online—scrolling, typing, and interacting with third-party tools like Gmail, Outlook, Google Docs, and Excel.

ChatGPT Agent? It’s essentially both of those features, rolled into one. And the best way to understand it? Give it a real mission.

How to activate ChatGPT’s Agent mode

If you’ve got a paid plan like ChatGPT Plus, you’re in. Hit the + icon, and just beneath “Add photos and files,” you’ll see an option called “Agent mode.” Tap it. You’ll be told you have about 40 uses per month.

Implementation of ChatGPT’s AI Agent mode. © OpenAI

Once enabled, you’ll spot a “Source” label. Under “Additional connections,” you can link up apps like Gmail, Google Drive, Outlook, Slack, and Dropbox. Just be sure to connect whichever ones you want the Agent to access.

Consider allowing connections to the applications you want the agent to control. © OpenAI

What the Agent actually does

When you enter a request, ChatGPT Agent opens a separate window where you can see which apps or sites it’s working with. In one corner, it gives you live updates on what it’s doing.

At the end, it delivers results in formats like PDFs, Google Docs, or Google Sheets.

Most tasks take between 5 and 30 minutes to complete—depending on complexity.

A real-world test for ChatGPT Agent

Here’s a task that was handed to ChatGPT Agent:

“I have a web page about the song Imagine by John Lennon:
https://ichbiah.com/extraits/divers/imagine.htm

I want to boost its SEO. So please find French-language directories that are clearly music or arts-related. Check their domain authority using tools like Ahrefs or Majestic to make sure they’re safe for Google. If they pass, go ahead and list my page.
Send me the links you create in a table or Google Sheet.”

It’s no simple job. Improving a webpage’s ranking means focusing on quality over quantity—reliable directories, relevant to the content, and high-ranking. So we asked the Agent to be thorough and picky.

Right after the request was made, ChatGPT Agent got to work hunting down French-language music directories. A small note in the corner of the interface kept updating us on its progress.

In a window, we can see ChatGPT Agent consulting music-related directories one by one. © OpenAI

And just as instructed, it checked each site’s authority before submitting the Imagine page.

For each directory found, ChatGPT Agent checks its rating and therefore whether registering a site could be beneficial.

Eventually, it checked in. It had only found one music-specific French directory with a strong enough rating. It asked whether to move on to reputable general directories. I gave the green light.

When captchas popped up, it tackled them. In some cases, it took a few tries to get past submission roadblocks. But every time, it filled out the submission forms, wrote a brief intro text, and clicked submit. For one high-ranking site, it even asked for my email to finalise the process.

ChatGPT Agent automatically fills out each registration form and generates the necessary texts each time, such as a description of the site. © OpenAI

The entire project took about an hour. At the end, ChatGPT Agent delivered a tidy link list in Excel and Google Sheets format. For a human, the same job could’ve easily eaten up a whole afternoon.

Daniel Ichbiah

Journalist | Website

Daniel Ichbiah is a writer and journalist, known for authoring several biographies of high-tech figures such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. He has written bestsellers like The Four Lives of Steve Jobs and Bitcoin & Cryptocurrencies For Dummies. His biography of Bill Gates has been published in about fifteen countries. In addition, he has sold 120,000 copies of his music theory teaching method in France.

Beyond writing, Daniel is also a composer and video creator on YouTube and has contributed to numerous technology magazines. He regularly collaborates with Futura Sciences.