Tool
An action a product lets its AI request, such as finding a record or adding a task.
A tool is an action a product makes available to its AI, beyond writing a reply. It might let the AI look up a client record or create a task. The AI requests the action. If the product allows and completes it, the result can be given back to the AI. The product's permissions determine whether the action is allowed.
Dean Walsh's income protection application is waiting on a report from his GP. His protection adviser asks the AI panel in the firm's back office to add a task to check with the insurer about the outstanding report in two weeks. The panel says, "Done. I've added the task." No task appears. Later, Dean asks why the cover has not started; the insurer is still waiting for the GP's report.
That panel has a tool for looking up records but none for adding tasks. Its written reply is no proof that it created one. A product can give its AI one tool without giving it every action on the back-office screen. To confirm that a task was added, the adviser checks the task list or a log of completed actions, if the product keeps one. A fluent reply is not a record of what the product did.
Not to be confused with
- Advisers already call some software a tool, such as a risk profiling tool, and people call whole AI products AI tools, such as a chat app or a meeting note-taker. In this dictionary, a tool is one action a product lets its AI take.
- An agent uses tools to work towards a goal, choosing each step itself. A product can give its AI tools without making it an agent, like the record look-up in this story.
- Permissions limit what a tool can reach, such as which records a look-up can open, and which actions wait for a person's approval. The tool is the action itself.
- An integration, such as a provider feed into the back office, moves data between systems. A product can build a tool on one, such as looking up the latest valuation from the feed, but the feed alone gives the AI no action.
Overheard
There's no task on the list to chase the insurer about Dean's GP report. Did you add one?
The AI panel said it had. The vendor says the panel's only tool looks up records, so I'll add the chase task myself.
Where it sits
Tool
- is part ofHarness
- works withModelHallucinationContextAgentPermission
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