Guide
What an AI agent is, and your first one for one task
For this guide and its prompts we recommend:
- Fireflies.ai shows a ready-made agent at work: it joins calls from your calendar and lists notes and action items. Free plan (source)
Offers checked 21 Oct 2026
You can now hand one task to an agent.
You can tell a chatbot from an agent and have one small agent running on one repetitive task.
What you need
- A list of tasks you repeat every week
- Any AI chat assistant, ideally one that lets you save a custom assistant
- An AI agent builder
- An AI meeting notetaker, to see a ready-made agent at work
- A spreadsheet for the log
Recommended AI tools
Fireflies.aiYou work from what was really saidFree plan
Steps
Know the difference
A chatbot answers when you ask. An agent takes steps on its own: it reads, decides and acts in your tools, within the limits you set. That is why the limits matter more than the prompt.
ExampleChatbot: you paste an order email and ask for a summary. Agent: every new order email is read, the order is added to your sheet and you get a note to check it.
Pick three tasks and choose one
List three tasks that repeat, follow the same steps and are easy to check. Start with the one where a mistake costs least.
WeakLet an agent run my customer service.
BetterWhen a booking request email arrives, copy name, date and service into the booking sheet and draft a reply for me to check.
Build a tiny agent with written instructions
Write what it must do, step by step, what it must never do and when to stop and ask you. Test it on a few past examples before it touches anything new.
See a ready-made agent at work
A meeting notetaker is a simple agent: it joins calls from your calendar, writes notes and lists action items. Watch what it does well and where it needs your check. Tell people on the call that a notetaker is there.
Set the limits and keep a log
No sending, paying or deleting without a human confirming it. Every action goes into a log with date, what it did and who checked it. Read the log every week and widen the limits only when it has earned it.
The full instruction
Copy it into any AI chat assistant and change only the first line.
Change only this line: TASKS = [order status replies, weekly stock count, invoice filing] You help me set up my first AI agent for one repetitive task. My TASKS above are three tasks I repeat every week. If you need my business in one sentence, ask me first. Unless I say otherwise, the agent may use only my inbox in read-only mode and one spreadsheet. Do four things: 1. Explain in 3 sentences the difference between a chatbot and an agent, using one of my TASKS as the example. 2. Pick the task where a mistake costs least and explain why in one line. 3. Write the agent's instructions: the steps it takes, what it must never do (send, pay, delete without my confirmation) and when it must stop and ask me. 4. Write the columns for a log of everything it does. Start with the explanation.
What you end up with
One small agent doing one task you can check, with written limits and a log, and a clear idea of what an agent is before you hand it anything bigger.
Common mistakes
- Starting with a task where a mistake is expensive.
- Letting the agent send, pay or delete without a human confirming it.
- Not keeping a log, so you cannot see what it did.
Processes that need more than one tool
Each process below uses several tools, each for the job it does best. Any AI chat assistant works where one is named.
Pick three tasks to hand over
Tools, in order: a spreadsheet → any AI chat assistant
- List the tasks you repeat each week in a spreadsheet with how often and how easy to check.
- Ask the chat assistant to rank them and pick the one where a mistake costs least.
The prompt for this process
Help me pick the first task to hand to a small AI agent. My business: [one sentence] Tasks I repeat, from my spreadsheet: [paste: task, how often, steps, how I check it] Rank the tasks by three tests: the steps are always the same, the result is easy to check, a mistake costs little. Pick one and explain in 2 lines why. List any task that should stay with a human because it involves sending, paying or deleting. Start with the ranking.
Build a tiny agent
Tools, in order: any AI chat assistant → an AI agent builder
- Write the instructions as a custom assistant in your chat tool and test them on past examples.
- Move the tested instructions into an AI agent builder and connect only the tools it needs.
The prompt for this process
Write the instructions for my first small AI agent. Task: [the task I picked] Tools it may use: [e.g. read my inbox, write to one spreadsheet] Past examples to test with: [paste two or three] Write the instructions in numbered steps. Add a "never" list (send, pay or delete without my confirmation, touch other files), a "stop and ask me" list for unclear cases and the exact output it should leave for me to check. Then show how it would handle the first example. Start with the steps.
See a ready-made agent at work
Tools, in order: Fireflies → your calendar
- Connect Fireflies to your calendar so it can join one internal call.
- Tell everyone on the call that a notetaker is there, then compare its notes and action items with what was said.
The prompt for this process
I let Fireflies join one internal call from my calendar, with everyone told a notetaker was there. Help me learn from it what an agent does. Call topic: [topic] Fireflies notes and action items: [paste] What I remember was agreed: [notes] Compare the notes with what I remember: what it got right, what it missed, what it made sound more certain than it was. Then list 3 limits I would set for an agent that acts on these action items. Start with the comparison.
Limit and log what it may do
Tools, in order: an AI agent builder → a spreadsheet
- Set the agent's permissions so it cannot send, pay or delete without your confirmation.
- Have it write every action to a spreadsheet log and read the log once a week.
The prompt for this process
Help me set limits and a log for my small AI agent. What the agent does: [describe] Tools it is connected to: [list] Write a permissions list: what it may read, what it may write, and what always needs my confirmation (sending, paying, deleting). Then write the columns for a log in a spreadsheet (date, input, action, result, checked by) and 3 questions to ask when I read the log each week. Start with the permissions list.
For this result we recommend these tools
This guide describes a result. These tools are one way to get there faster. Whether one pays for itself depends on your work, and we promise no result.
Fireflies.ai
An AI notetaker: records, transcribes and summarises meetings.
From $10 per seat per month (Pro, billed annually; $18 billed monthly) (source, checked 2026-10-15)
Fireflies.ai records, transcribes and summarises online meetings and calls. In this guide it is used in “See a ready-made agent at work”. Teams use it to search old calls and share action items, and what sets it apart is a searchable transcript of every call, so nobody takes notes by hand.
Free plan (source, checked 21 Oct 2026)
We recommend a specialised tool for each process rather than one tool that does everything. Tools that try to do everything rarely do any one job really well, because no single function gets perfected. It is the same in life, in business and in relationships: spread your attention over ten places and nothing gets done properly.
Forward, without brakes
Now that the Kailiniai Heroes exist, you can have your own. Create one hero or several, and use them for goals that used to need a whole team or a big budget.
