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Institute of Digital Government

Introduction to Workspace Agents

20 October 2026

Learn what an AI agent is, and set up your own ChatGPT workspace agent.

Thumbnail for Video: Introduction to Workspace Agents

Today's Lesson

You may already use AI to help with individual tasks. Agents go one step further: they can work towards a goal across multiple steps.

In this guide we will:

  1. Learn what is an agent

  2. Understand what powers an agent

  3. Set up a workspace agent in ChatGPT

  4. Explore the components of the workspace agent


Here's what you need for this exercise

Tools required

🛠️ Tool

ChatGPT Enterprise (WOG) 

🔗 Feature

Workspace Agents


1. First, what is an Agent?

You can think about AI in three levels of increasing autonomy and complexity:

An infographic illustrating the difference from chatbot to assistant to agent.

An agent is an AI system that works towards a goal across multiple steps, using reusable instructions and capabilities within set boundaries.


Depending on how it is set up, an agent can:

infographic showing the following steps: Understand the goal Plan what it needs to do Gather relevant information Take action Check the result Adjust its approach Pause for human review where required

For example, instead of asking ChatGPT separately to check your meetings, review emails and prepare a brief, you could give an agent the overall goal of helping you prepare for the day ahead.

The agent then works through the workflow using the information and capabilities available to it.


2. What powers an agent?

Behind the scenes, four components work together.

Infographic depicting: 🧠 AI model The AI model interprets your goal and determines what to do next. 🔗 Connectors Connectors give the agent access to approved information sources. 🛠️ Tools Tools allow the agent to take actions, instead of only reading or generating information. 📋 Skills and instructions Instructions tell the agent what to do and how to behave.

Together, these components allow an agent to gather information, work through a task and produce a useful result.


3. Set up a workspace agent in ChatGPT

Let's set up a 'Chief of Staff' workspace agent in ChatGPT.

Gif showing the steps: create agent, browse templates, selecting chief of staff

✅ Log in to ChatGPT Enterprise (opens in new tab). Go to 'create agent' → 'browse templates' and create an agent with the 'Chief of Staff' template.


gif of answering questions by the agent builder

✅ The agent builder may ask some follow up questions. Answer them to customise your agent.


Agent setting up

✅ ChatGPT will start building your agent.


4. Explore the components of the agent

Now that we have created the agent, lets explore it's components.

Connectors:

The apps of the agent being highlighted - Outlook calendar, email and Teams

✅ Connectors: The Chief of Staff agent needs information to prepare your daily brief. In this example, it is connected to:

  • Outlook Calendar

  • Outlook Email

  • Microsoft Teams


Tools:

The agent's tools being featured

✅ Tools: After the daily brief has been prepared, the agent can use its available tools to draft and send an email to the user.


Skills & Instructions

Agent's skills being featured

✅ Skills & Instructions: These tell the agent how it should carry out the task, and gives a repeatable way of carrying out the work.


Let's test the agent

Now let’s see what happens when the agent runs.

Running the agent

✅ Run the Chief of Staff agent manually. It will search its connected sources and prepare your daily brief.


The agent sends an email

✅ The agent then sends the daily brief to your email. You may need to approve the action.


⚡Review and refine

Review the brief and check important information against the original sources.

If you're not happy with the result, refine the agent's instructions and try again. Testing and improving your agent is part of the creation process.


Now it’s your turn to try!

You have seen what makes an agent different from a chatbot or AI assistant.

  1. Go to Create Agent in ChatGPT and exploring the available templates.

  2. Look at the connectors, tools, instructions and skills available to an agent and see if you can identify the role each one plays.

  3. Start with a clear, repeatable workflow where you can easily review whether the agent has produced the right result.