Agents are becoming widespread in a variety of computer systems and domains, but often appear to have little in common with each other. In this paper we look at different agent systems and identify what a generic agent should be composed of. We also identify the characteristics of a task that make it worthy of an agentbased approach. We then discuss the implications for the interaction of using agents, that is, the notion of a balanced interface, and briefly look at how an agent-based approach assists in two very different application domains.

Keywords: agents, intelligent interfaces, groupwork, computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW).

Introduction

The term agent has become increasingly widespread over the past few years. Unfortunately, it has no consistent definition and means many different things to different people. This paper considers the multifarious uses that these disparate agents are put to and tries to identify what, if anything, they have in common. With this commonality in mind, we identify the general properties of an agent and consider what makes a task ‘agent worthy’.

Agent-based interaction has consequences, leading to the notion of a balanced interface. This leads on to a description of the design of a generic agent and a look at a couple of applications that are benefiting from being treated in an agent-based manner.

Classifying Agents

We can identify a number of categories that agents can be classified under, based on the functionality offered by the different types of agent.