Ad hoc agents are changing how we approach automation

2026-03-26 · Source: How I AI · Field: Technology & Digital — Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Robotics & Autonomous Systems · Depth: Intermediate, quick

Summary

A new "workflows agent" is introduced, designed to automate the creation of other agents based on natural language instructions. The demonstration illustrates building an email-triggered agent that processes meeting requests. Specifically, when an email from "Clearvo" requests a meeting at a certain time, the agent checks the user's calendar. If the time is available, it automatically sends a 30-minute meeting invite for that slot. The system is capable of extracting time information from emails in ISO 8601 format, which is compatible with API requirements for calendar integration. Once saved, this agent integrates with Outlook, enabling automated meeting scheduling.

Key takeaway

For AI Product Managers evaluating automation tools, this workflows agent demonstrates a significant step towards user-friendly agent development. You should consider how such a system could empower non-technical users to build custom automations, reducing reliance on developer resources for routine tasks like scheduling and data extraction. This approach could streamline internal operations and accelerate feature deployment.

Key insights

The workflows agent automates agent creation, enabling natural language-driven task automation and calendar integration.

Principles

• Automate agent creation
• Extract structured data from natural language

Method

Define an agent's behavior using natural language instructions, which the workflows agent then translates into a triggered agent that extracts data, checks calendars, and sends invites.

In practice

• Automate meeting scheduling
• Integrate with Outlook calendar
• Extract ISO 8601 time from emails

Topics

• Ad hoc Agents
• Agent Building
• Workflow Automation
• Email-Triggered Automation
• Calendar Integration

Best for: AI Architect, AI Product Manager, Entrepreneur, AI Engineer, Automation Engineer, MLOps Engineer

Related on AIssential

• Get back hours every day with autonomous agents in Amazon Quick — Autonomous AI agents and integrated activity feeds automate routine tasks and consolidate information, significantly reclaiming professional time.
• Instruct 2.5 — Instruct 2.5 enables no-code automation via natural language, executing tasks live across apps and saving successful runs as workflows.
• How AI Agents Can Automate Complex Tasks — AI agents automate complex, multi-step tasks by dynamically planning, reasoning, and adapting with minimal human oversight.
• AutomationBench — AutomationBench evaluates AI agents on complex, cross-application business workflows requiring API discovery and policy adherence.
• How I Built an Autonomous AI Agent Team That Runs 24/7 — Autonomous AI agent teams can manage repetitive tasks, freeing human effort for creative work.
• Build agents that run automatically — Automated agents can significantly enhance software development pipelines by handling review, monitoring, and routine tasks.

Open in AIssential →

Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by How I AI.