Since its debut last month, Meta’s Muse, the artificially intelligent assistant that performs tasks on a user’s behalf, has been the most downloaded phone app. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has responded with a competitor called dots, a similar assistant that costs $100 a month to use.

Welcome to the era of agents, digital assistants that use our devices for us. Although they share many similarities with chatbots, agents such as Muse and dots serve a different purpose. Chatbots primarily provide answers to questions. Agents are essentially bots with their own computer and web browser, so they can do more complicated things like applying for jobs, booking restaurant tables and sending emails.

This concept may sound familiar. More than a decade ago, tech companies including Amazon, Apple and Google tried offering virtual assistants that could be asked to do things like hailing an Uber and ordering takeout.…