TL;DR
ChatGPT’s new Agent mode wants to be your tireless digital intern – clicking, scrolling, and filling forms so you don’t have to. I gave it two real-world jobs: plan a family holiday to Iceland and book a romantic dinner in Dubai. The results? Impressive vision, clumsy execution. Below:
- What Agent mode actually is (in plain English).
- What happened when I tested it – wins, misses, mild chaos.
- Ten bite-sized tasks you can try to see it in action.
- Some reality checks, caution signs, and tips so you stay in control.
Let’s dive in.
1. So, What Is ChatGPT Agent Mode?
Imagine your usual ChatGPT – helpful, chatty, full of ideas. Now give it a browser, a mouse, and a mission. Agent mode is like handing your intern a laptop and saying: “Go figure this out on the web.”
- It opens a secure virtual browser it can control.
- It performs multi-step tasks (searching, clicking, summarising, even building slides).
- It shows you everything it does in a transparent log – like watching your intern’s screen as they poke around online.
OpenAI calls it “autonomous.” I call it a very eager intern: helpful, energetic, and occasionally lost in the sauce.
Why It Matters For Hotels
If it can analyse competitors, write guest reports, or build decks while you sleep, that’s gold. But only if it’s accurate, secure, and faster than doing it yourself.
2. My Two Test Runs
A. Iceland Family Holiday Planner
Brief: Plan a 5-day trip for four, mid-October. Use 200k Marriott Bonvoy points + 200k Emirates Skywards miles. Make a PowerPoint.
What Worked
- Gave a solid itinerary (Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon, glacier hike).
- Factored in points/miles (at least conceptually).
- Created a decent 10-slide deck: colour-coded, structured, even had a daily schedule.
What Didn’t
- Spent half of 26 minutes crafting that PowerPoint. Priorities, anyone?
- Didn’t check live flight or hotel availability. Suggested a Marriott that was already full.
- No cost-per-point value analysis – just assumptions.
- Ignored the visa clock entirely (hello, Schengen bureaucracy!).
B. Book a Romantic Mexican Dinner in Dubai
Brief: Find the most romantic, top-rated Mexican restaurant for a 25th wedding anniversary. Book it. Make sure it’s cancellable.
What Worked
- Pulled options from Zomato, OpenTable, Google.
- Surfaced romantic cues like “candle-lit” and “mariachi band.”
- Tried pre-filling forms.
What Didn’t
- Didn’t explain why one restaurant beat the others.
- Stalled when booking required WhatsApp. Left me to finish it manually.
- Took 19 minutes to do what I could have Googled in 3.
Here’s a quick video demo:
Other Testers Say the Same
Agent mode feels like watching a bright 10-year-old try to book flights: charming, slow, and occasionally baffling. It struggles with login walls, dynamic pages, and Captchas—which, fair enough, many humans do too.
3. Ten Experiments Worth Trying
Note: These are personal experiments using only publicly available data. Don’t try anything involving sensitive information or that might go against your company’s approved tech stack, data policy, or security protocols.
Quick tip: Set a timer. Anything over 20 minutes? Probably faster to DIY.
| # | Task | Why Try It | What to Look For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rate Check: Scrape tonight’s rates for your comp-set. | Could save $$$ on third-party tools. | Compare to STR/OTA dashboard. |
| 2 | Event Matchmaking: Feed it RFP specs, ask for matching hotel venues. | Tests multi-step search + formatting. | Relevance and effort saved. |
| 3 | Influencer Vetting: Audit an Insta handle for engagement & red flags. | Great combo of scraping + reasoning. | Depth vs. real influencer tools. |
| 4 | Loyalty Rule Decoder: Summarise the T&Cs of a rival program. | Tames legalese. | Accuracy + clarity. |
| 5 | Review Sentiment Map: Analyse last 100 TripAdvisor reviews. | Shows off text analysis + visuals. | Spot-check the tone and patterns. |
| 6 | Price Tracker: Monitor flight prices for 24h and export CSV. | Scheduled tracking + reporting. | Missed intervals = fail. |
| 7 | LinkedIn Lead Gen: Find 50 contacts and draft custom invites. | Combines scraping + templating. | Outreach quality. |
| 8 | Sustainability Snapshot: Compare carbon stats across brands. | Real-world research task. | Source transparency. |
| 9 | F&B Reorder Helper: Compare wholesale avocado prices. | Great for ops + margin hawks. | Cost savings. |
| 10 | Slide Deck Maker: Turn your KPI sheet into 10 board-ready slides. | Where Agent shines. | Design + factuality. |
Try these out and see where it flies… and where it flops.
4. Where It’s Headed (And What to Watch Out For)
The Wobbles
- Slow Motion: Watching Agent work can be like streaming at 0.5× speed. Good for Zen. Not great for deadlines.
- Unpredictable Results: One run is gold. The next gets stuck on a cookie popup.
- No-Go Zones: Don’t feed it passwords or sensitive data. It’s still early days.
- Reputation Risk: Bad info = bad guest experience. Use with care.
Why It Still Matters
Because every clumsy agent today is training for tomorrow. We saw GPT-3 to GPT-4o in 18 months. Agents are evolving fast. The day it nails that board deck at 3 a.m. without a typo? That’s when the ROI kicks in.
Five Pro Tips
- Be Specific: Start with a clear, narrow task.
- Ask for Updates: Build in checkpoints. Save time.
- Keep It Public: Don’t risk it with real data.
- Time It: Ask if Agent time is worth your time.
- Aim for 80%: A good draft is still a big win.
The Wrap
2025 is the year of the AI Agent.
Perplexity’s Comet gave us a smarter browser. ChatGPT Agent mode wants to do the clicking for us. Right now, it’s an intern who stumbles, forgets the password, and asks a lot of questions. But soon?
Maybe it’s the colleague who preps your slides, books your flights, and never once asks for a raise.
Until then: give it small jobs, double-check the work, and be generous with feedback. The future is watching – and learning.
Have you tried Agent mode? Drop your best/worst stories in the comments or ping me on LinkedIn. Top tip might win coffee.
