The difference
A chatbot answers questions. An agent finishes work. The distinction sounds like marketing until you watch one read an inbox, check three systems, draft the reply, file the record and escalate the one case it wasn't sure about.
What makes an agent
Three things separate an agent from a chat window: tools — scoped, audited access to the systems where work actually happens; memory — context that persists across sessions so it learns your operation; and policy — explicit rules about what it may decide alone and what goes to a human.
If it can't act inside your systems, it's a search box with manners.
Where to start
Pick the workflow your team complains about most — usually triage: messages, invoices, applications, tickets. Agents excel where the work is structured, repetitive and interruption-driven. Six weeks is enough to put a first agent on real work, governed and observable, if you skip the platform debate and start with the job.