Productive AI Agents are autonomous AI workers that can perform tasks inside Productive on your behalf without you needing to be present or prompt them manually.
While the AI Assistant responds when you ask it something, Agents work proactively. They can be set up to run on a schedule, respond to triggers, and take real actions inside your account like creating tasks, updating records, or following up on items, all based on rules you define.
Think of the AI Assistant as a colleague you ask questions. Agents are more like a team member you delegate a recurring workflow to.
AI Agents are available on Professional and Ultimate subscription plans.
How Are Agents Different from the AI Assistant?
Both the AI Assistant and Agents can take actions inside Productive. The key difference is who initiates them and when they run.
The AI Assistant is a generalist: it responds to whatever you ask. Agents are purpose-built and fine-tuned for specific tasks, so they can handle them more precisely and independently.
| AI Assistant | Agents |
How it works | You prompt it, it responds | Runs automatically based on triggers or schedules |
What it does | Generates content, answers questions, creates and updates things on request | Takes actions inside Productive on your behalf |
When it runs | When you open it and ask | In the background, whenever conditions are met or when prompted |
What Can Agents Do?
Agents can access most areas of Productive depending on their permission set — from tasks and projects to reporting, finance, and people management. What a specific Agent can do is determined by the permissions assigned to it.
👉 See examples of Agents in action in Working with AI Agents.
Enabling AI Agents
Agents require Productive AI to be enabled by an admin.
To enable Productive AI:
Go to Settings > Productive AI
Toggle Turn on AI
Once enabled, Agents and other AI features become available.
By default, only Admins can create and manage Agents. Other users can view and interact with them.
If your organization uses custom permission sets, enable the following permissions to grant access to Agents:
View AI agents - Allows the user to see Agents in Resourcing > Agents.
Add, edit, and delete AI agents - Allows the user to create and manage Agents.
Where to Go from Here
👉 Setting Up and Managing AI Agents walks you through creating and configuring your first Agent.
👉 When you're done, check out Working with AI Agents for practical guidance on using it day-to-day, including example Agents to help you get started.