ChatGPT agent can browse websites, work with files, connect data sources, fill forms, and edit spreadsheets. It can also schedule completed tasks to repeat. OpenAI documents these current abilities in its ChatGPT agent help page.
"AI employee" is a marketing term, not a technical standard. This guide uses "company coworker" for a shared system that carries governed company work.
The buying question is not whether one can use tools. Both can. The question is who owns the work, context, permissions, and record after the first task.
The market uses both terms loosely. Some assistants call tools. Some agents stop after a draft. Judge the operating model, not the name on the homepage.
#The six-part test
Ask these six questions about the work you want to give away.
The table shows two common operating models. It is not a complete ChatGPT Business or Enterprise feature comparison.
| Question | General-purpose agent | Company coworker |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns it? | Usually one user | A person, team, or company |
| What context applies? | Connected personal sources and the task | Sources assigned to the coworker |
| Who sets access? | The user and workspace controls | An admin, per coworker and connection |
| What starts it? | A person or available schedule | A person, schedule, message, event, or API |
| Who approves risk? | The user confirms sensitive actions | A named approver follows company rules |
| What record remains? | The product's task history | The run, actions, cost, and company result |
This table describes a spectrum. A product can sit in different columns for different tasks.
#Choose ChatGPT for general personal work
Use ChatGPT when a person owns the task and wants one general place to complete it. Good examples include research, analysis, drafting, and browser work.
ChatGPT agent can complete multi-step work. Its current capabilities make the old "chatbot versus agent" split inaccurate.
The personal operating model still fits much work. Do not add a company workflow system when one person already owns the task.
#Choose a company coworker for shared responsibility
Use a company coworker when the team must own a recurring result together. The job also needs company rules, shared sources, and a visible company record.
Examples include:
- Check a shared inbox, answer routine requests, and route exceptions.
- Read meeting notes, update the CRM, and assign each next step.
- Reconcile yesterday's payments and report any mismatch.
- Prepare a weekly pipeline report and send it at a set time.
These jobs need more than a good answer. They need connections to the systems where the work lives, a way to start work on a schedule or event, and a record of each action.
#Tool use does not settle the choice
Both product types can use tools. Tool access says little about ownership, control, or reliability.
Look for four concrete company abilities:
- A team can own the same workflow and result.
- An admin can set access for each coworker and connection.
- A named person can approve actions under company rules.
- The company can inspect finished, failed, and blocked work.
Alfera exposes these abilities through app connections, permissions, and run activity. The product can also open a browser for software without an API.
#The boundary matters more than autonomy
"More autonomous" is not a useful buying goal. A useful system has enough freedom to finish the job and a hard boundary around that freedom.
For example, a support agent can read the help inbox and draft replies. It can send routine replies, but a refund over a set amount can require approval. The model can propose the refund. The permission layer decides whether it runs.
Our detailed permissions article explains why that check must sit outside the model.
#Company context should improve the next run
General agents can use connected sources and conversation history. A company coworker also needs shared rules and corrections that apply next time.
That does not mean giving it every company document. Attach the relevant sources, and keep unrelated sources out. Remove derived knowledge when its source goes away. Read why memory is not a search box before a vendor promises "all your company knowledge."
#A simple buying decision
Choose ChatGPT when one person owns a general task. Choose a company coworker when a team owns governed, recurring work.
Then test one real job. Write the task as you would for a new starter. Name the job, the important exception, and the limit above which it must ask. Our task-writing guide shows the full pattern.
Run the job for two weeks. Count completed results, wrong results, blocked actions, and the work a person still had to finish. Those four columns tell you more than the product category.
#Where Alfera does not fit
Alfera works best for recurring, tool-based work with a result you can inspect. It is a poor fit for isolated personal tasks that ChatGPT already completes. It also does not fit work where every case needs new human judgment.
Keep that work with a person. Use an assistant to help them if useful. Do not turn uncertain judgment into an unattended workflow.