Choosing an AI tool
What it is
Most AI apps offer three kinds of tool, each a different way of using AI. The job decides which. In a chat, you type a message and the model, the part of the app that writes, replies. You carry out what the reply suggests. An agent lets the model carry out several steps on your files or the web, then report back. A coding tool is an agent that builds things by writing, running and fixing code.
Team names for your netball club suit a chat, and a folder of receipts sorted by month for tax calls for an agent. A web page for your market stall suits a coding tool.
The more a mistake would cost you, the more you check. AI helps you think a decision through, such as whether to take a job. The decision stays with you, or with a professional for money, health or the law, because the app cannot answer for it.
Tips
- Use a chat to ask, an agent for many file steps or a coding tool to build, because each kind needs different checks, even when one app offers all three.
- Ask what a mistake would cost, then for an agent work on a copy of your files and check what it did, because you see the result, not each step.
- If your app can run calculations on uploaded files, upload the spreadsheet, not typed numbers, because the app works the sums out from the data instead of guessing at them.
Try it
- Pick one real job you meant to do with AI this week, and say in a line what sort it is: asking or drafting (a chat), many steps on files (an agent), or building something (a coding tool).
- Tell your AI app the job, and ask which of the three kinds of tool suits it and why. Ask too what a mistake on it would cost you and what you should check.
- Do the job with the kind of tool your app suggested, as far as your phone allows. If the job touches files, make a duplicate of them first and use the duplicates.
- Finish something you can keep, such as the reply sent, the files sorted or a web page you have saved. Try a web page yourself before anyone else sees it. If your phone cannot do the job, such as sorting a big folder, save the steps your app laid out in a note.
Expect your app to answer along these lines.
- A small job gets "a chat is fine".
- A job on files, or a build, gets an agent or a coding tool, with advice to work on a copy and read what it did.
- A costly job also gets a short list of what to check.
- If your app offers only a chat, it will say what it can do and what you would do by hand. Then do those parts by hand. If it suggests a kind of tool you cannot find on your screen, use only what you can see.
Risks
- An agent can change files in ways you did not mean, and some agents keep working without asking at each step. Work on a copy, look in the agent's settings for a way to make it ask before each step, and read what it did.
- A slower setting, which makes the model take longer and work through a reply more thoroughly, can still be wrong. A reply that shows how it got its answer can be wrong too. Check the facts you will act on.
- Your words and files go to the company that runs the app, so a new app means a new company. Before trying another app, write a line in your phone notes for what never goes into an AI, such as "No passwords or clients' names".
Why it matters
Choose the kind of tool that suits each job. Take more care where a mistake would cost you more, and keep the decisions that are yours.