Agent overview

Agents are like intelligent assistants within Optimizely Opal. They use natural language instructions and tools to complete tasks on your behalf. Each agent has a specific purpose, whether that is generating content, analyzing data, or automating workflows.

Agents combine tools (actions they can take) and instructions (guidelines that define their behavior) to complete tasks without requiring you to manage the technical details. Think of agents as skilled team members.

With agents, you can make simple requests like, Draft a social post for our product launch or Summarize experiment results. Opal selects the right tools and follows the right instructions to complete the task.

For a visual walkthrough of agents, watch the video overview. 

Why agents matter

Agents make Opal flexible and extensible. Describe what you want in natural language. The agent selects the right tools and handles the technical details. The agent does the rest, ensuring tasks are completed consistently and accurately.

Without agents, you would need to complete the following tasks manually:

• Configure tools for each task.
• Write detailed prompts every time you make a request.
• Understand the underlying systems or APIs.

With agents, you get repeatable workflows that you can customize to your organization's needs.

Types of agents

Agents in the Agent Directory

Agents in the Agent Directory are pre-built by Optimizely and come ready to use. These agents handle common tasks like reviewing content for tone and style, generating competitive insights, or providing customer support responses.

Browse and add default agents from the Agent Directory. Each listing includes the following:

• Description – What the agent does and when to use it.
• Tools included – The built-in tools the agent can call.
• Configuration options – Settings you can adjust for your organization. 

Agents from the Agent Directory are the fastest way to get started because they are ready to run without custom development. 

See Agents in the Agent Directory for a list of available agents.

Specialized agents

Specialized agents are custom-built for your organization. They are designed to execute specific, well-defined tasks using your own tools, data, and instructions.

Specialized agents support the following capabilities:

• Build tailored workflows for unique business processes.
• Control which tools the agent can access.
• Fine-tune inputs, outputs, and behavior using prompt templates.

Specialized agents are ideal when you need precise control or want to automate tasks that default agents do not cover.

See Create specialized agents for details on how to design and configure your own.

Workflow agents

Workflow agents are designed to process natural language input to accomplish complex workflows. They can automate and streamline multi-step processes within the Optimizely platform.

For example, a workflow agent named "Industry Marketer Workflow" can coordinate marketing efforts by integrating with specialized agents such as a case study agent.

See Create a workflow agent for details on how to design and configure your workflow agent. 

Where agents are used

Agents work behind the scenes in several areas of Opal. Most collaborators experience agents through Opal Chat without needing to know which agents are active.

Opal Chat

In Opal Chat, talk to agents directly using natural language. Opal automatically selects the right default agent based on your request. If multiple agents could apply, Opal asks clarifying questions to choose the best one.

Example requests include the following:

• Summarize the results of our last experiment – Uses a default results analysis agent.
• Create a product announcement post – Uses a default content generation agent.
• Check if there are any broken links on our website – Uses a specialized agent with a custom web-check tool.

See Opal prompts for information.

Automated workflows

Workflow agents can run automatically when certain triggers are met. The following examples show agents that trigger on a condition:

• An agent that tags uploaded files with metadata when they are added to a repository.
• An agent that generates draft help responses whenever a new support ticket is created.

Next steps

• Browse the Agent Directory to see available default agents.
• Create a specialized agent or Create a workflow agent.
• Manage specialized agents or Manage workflow agents to update the configuration of your agents.