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AI integration is moving at an astonishing pace. Just a few months ago, we were coming to terms with the idea of AI agents, or what the buzzword mavens call "agentic AI." Now, we're starting to look at issues of practical deployment.
If you're not fully up to speed on agents, that's okay. Few people are. OpenAI defines agents as "Systems that independently accomplish tasks on your behalf," with an emphasis on "independently." ZDNET has a full guide on the topic, which is essential reading.
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OpenAI recently released a 34-page PDF entitled "A practical guide to building agents," which includes notes and guidelines from the company's experience deploying agents for its clients. After reading the guide, I've distilled OpenAI's recommendations into 10 best practices, detailed below.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
1. Prioritize stubborn workflows
AI is so dominating the conversation that we sometimes forget to ask an obvious question: when should it be used? We ask that for all our tools. Even if a tool is very general purpose (like a computer or an AI), we still want to know what it's best at and how it can help.
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This is particularly true of agents, which are designed to carry out sets of tasks. When I read OpenAI's guide, something clicked in terms of my understanding. It was this statement: "As you evaluate where agents can add value, prioritize workflows that have previously resisted automation, especially where traditional methods encounter friction."
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