Last week we watched a CEO spend three hours doing work that the best AI agents could have handled for him. When we showed him what these tools could do, he couldn't believe it.
"Why didn't anyone tell me about this sooner?" he asked.
Here's what's happening: AI has jumped from answering questions to actually doing work. The best AI agents today execute complete workflows without you having to babysit them.
For teams drowning in communication and racing to catch opportunities before they disappear, these tools are game-changers. They turn friction into flow. They let you focus on the work that matters.
Let us show you which ones actually work.
What makes an AI agent "best" in 2025?
You can spot the truly great AI agents by looking for five things:
They handle entire workflows
The best agents don't just do one step and hand it back to you. They take a task from start to finish. They navigate between your systems, figure out what to do next, and keep going until the job is done.
They connect to your existing tools
Great agents plug right into the stuff you already use — your CRM, email, project tools, chat apps. They can pull data from one place and use it in another without you having to copy-paste anything.
They make smart decisions on their own
The agents worth paying for can look at a situation, weigh options, and choose the right path. They don't come running to you for every little decision.
Anyone can customize them
You shouldn't need to code to make an agent work for you. The best ones let regular people adjust workflows through simple interfaces. Point, click, done.
They deliver real results
Forget the AI hype. What matters is: Does it save time? Does it cut costs? Does it make customers happier? Does it speed things up? The best agents show clear wins in at least one of these areas.
For teams that need to move fast and can't afford mistakes, these capabilities aren't just nice-to-haves. They're the difference between keeping up and falling behind.The best AI agents by category
Meeting and collaboration agents
Otter Meeting Agent
Ever sat in a meeting thinking, "I should be paying attention, but I also need to take notes"? Otter Meeting Agent fixes this problem. It joins your virtual meetings, transcribes everything in real time, pulls out the important points, answers questions during the meeting, and even sets up follow-ups based on what people said they'd do.
Teams using Otter can finally pay full attention in meetings because they know nothing will fall through the cracks. Every idea, decision, and action item gets captured — no note-taking required.
Fellow AI Agent
Fellow AI Agent makes sure your meetings actually accomplish something. It organizes agendas, tracks what everyone agrees to do, and follows up automatically. No more "wait, who was supposed to do that again?"
Teams that struggled with meeting effectiveness love Fellow because it adds structure without adding work. It keeps everyone on the same page and turns meeting decisions into actual progress.
Sales and customer support agents
Otter Sales Agent
Think of Otter Sales Agent as the sales coach who's always with you. During calls, it whispers helpful tips, pulls up relevant customer data, and highlights competitive info you might need. After the call, it writes up what happened and drafts follow-up emails that sound like you wrote them.
Sales teams using Otter close deals faster because they never drop the ball on follow-ups and always have the right information at their fingertips.
Otter SDR Agent
Otter SDR Agent is like having a sales rep who works 24/7 and never complains. It lives on your website, shows prospects how your product works, answers their questions, and checks if they're a good fit — all without a human having to step in.
This means you never miss a lead because someone reached out at 2 AM or on a weekend. The agent handles the initial conversation, and your human team steps in only when a prospect is ready to talk seriously.
Moveworks tackles the mundane support tasks that eat up so much time. It connects to all your internal systems to help employees with password resets, benefit questions, IT issues, and more — without involving your support team.
Big companies use Moveworks to cut support costs while actually making employees happier. Because let's face it: getting an instant answer is better than waiting in a ticket queue for three days.
Decagon helps your support team handle conversations across all channels — email, chat, social, phone. It taps into your knowledge base and workflow systems to give consistent, accurate answers no matter where customers reach out.
Support teams use Decagon to stay responsive even when request volume spikes. They can handle more conversations without rushing or making customers wait.
Workflow and automation agents
Zapier AI Agents
Zapier AI Agents connect your apps and do the boring stuff for you. But unlike old-school automation that needed someone to start each workflow, these agents figure out when to jump in by themselves.
Small businesses love Zapier because it eliminates repetitive tasks across more than 6,000 apps without requiring a tech team to set everything up.
Gumloop lets regular people build their own AI agents without writing code. If you can describe a process, you can automate it with Gumloop.
Teams with limited tech resources use it to automate routine tasks while keeping control over exactly how things work in their specific environment.
Relevance AI helps you build not just one agent, but an entire AI workforce. It lets you create specialized agents for different tasks and then coordinate them to tackle complex business processes.
Companies scaling up their automation efforts use Relevance AI to manage multiple agents across different departments, making sure they all work together smoothly.
Engineering and customization agents
LangChain and LangGraph give developers the building blocks for creating custom AI agents that do exactly what your business needs. They handle the infrastructure so you can focus on solving your specific problems.
Tech teams use these frameworks when they need agents tailored to unique challenges that off-the-shelf solutions can't address.
CrewAI lets you build teams of specialized AI agents that work together. Each agent has a specific role and expertise, just like in a human team.
Organizations creating sophisticated automation use CrewAI when they need multiple types of AI expertise to solve complex problems.
Enterprise and specialized agents
Fin focuses on customer support automation. It handles common questions on its own, routes complex issues to the right specialists, and gets smarter by learning from how problems get solved.
Support teams handling high volumes use Fin to resolve simple issues instantly while making sure the tricky ones go to the right people.
Agentforce helps sales and support teams by connecting directly to your CRM and knowledge systems. It brings up relevant information during customer conversations and handles follow-up tasks automatically.
Teams using Agentforce spend less time on admin work and more time building relationships with customers.
How to choose the best AI agent for your business
When you're looking at AI agents, ask yourself these questions:
What exactly needs fixing?
Map out the workflows giving you the most trouble. How complex are they? What systems would an agent need to access? More complicated processes might need specialized agents with stronger reasoning abilities.
What are your security requirements?
Different industries have different rules. If you're in healthcare, finance, or government, make sure any agent you choose has the right certifications and security features.
How fast do you need to get started?
Custom solutions give you exactly what you want but take longer to build. Pre-built agents get you moving quickly but might need some compromises. Decide what matters more for your situation.
What would real success look like?
Before you buy anything, define what a win looks like. Is it faster response times? Lower costs? Better customer experience? The right agent for you is the one that moves the needle on metrics you actually care about.
Where should you start?
Pick a process that's clearly defined and will make a noticeable difference when improved. Starting with a high-value, straightforward use case builds confidence and shows results before you tackle the more complex stuff.
The bottom line
The jump from basic chatbots to true AI agents is bigger than most people realize. These tools don't just save time — they change what's possible for your team.
The best AI agent isn't necessarily the one with the most features. It's the one that solves your specific problems, works with your existing tools, and delivers results you can measure.
For teams feeling the constant pressure to move faster and execute flawlessly, the right AI agents aren't a luxury. They're the edge that keeps you ahead of everyone else still trying to do everything manually.
