Agents

Agents are AI-powered workers that analyze your data and take actions based on what they find. Unlike traditional AI chatbots that only respond to questions, Cotera agents actively process your data, make decisions, and execute tasks automatically.

What Are Agents?

Think of an agent as an AI employee that can read through your data, understand what it means, and then do something useful with that information. Agents combine the analytical power of AI with the ability to take real actions in your business systems.

For example, an agent might:

• Read customer reviews and identify which ones mention safety concerns
• Analyze support conversations to determine customer sentiment
• Process order data and flag high-value customers at risk of churning
• Review financial transactions and categorize them by expense type

But agents don't just analyze - they can also act on their findings by sending alerts, updating systems, or triggering workflows.

How Agents Work

Connected to Your Data

Agents operate directly on your data warehouse information. They can access any data you've made available through Cotera's dataset connections, giving them full context about your business.

Powered by Leading AI Models

Agents use state-of-the-art AI models from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini. You choose which model works best for each specific task.

Equipped with Tools

Agents can be connected to a vast library of tools that extend their capabilities:

• Data fetching tools: Google Search, database lookups, API calls, and more
• Action tools: Send Slack messages, update Klaviyo properties, append to Google Sheets, plus hundreds of other integrations
• Analysis tools: Image processing, document parsing, data validation, and additional specialized functions

Cotera integrates with hundreds of different tools and can add custom tool connections on demand to meet your specific business needs.

Flexible Input Processing

Agents can work with multiple types of input:

• Text data from your warehouse
• Images and documents
• Structured data like JSON or database records
• Real-time data from connected systems

Agent Capabilities

Autonomous Decision Making

Agents can make complex decisions based on your data. You can give them as much or as little control as needed - from simple binary classifications to complex multi-step workflows.

Scheduled Execution

Set agents to run automatically on schedules that match your business needs - hourly, daily, weekly, or triggered by data changes.

Structured Outputs

Agents return results in formats that integrate seamlessly with your data systems - strings, numbers, booleans, JSON objects, arrays, or any data warehouse-compatible type.

Chained Operations

Multiple agents can work together in sequences, where one agent's output becomes another agent's input, creating sophisticated automated workflows.

Agent vs Traditional Automation

Traditional business automation requires rigid, pre-programmed rules. Agents bring intelligence to automation:

Traditional Rule: "If customer rating is below 3, flag for review" Agent Approach: "Read customer feedback and identify any mentions of safety, quality, or service issues, regardless of rating, and assess urgency level"

This intelligence allows agents to handle nuanced, context-dependent tasks that would be impossible with standard automation.

Common Use Cases

Customer Intelligence

• Analyze support conversations for sentiment and intent
• Identify at-risk customers from behavioral signals
• Extract product feedback themes from reviews

Content Processing

• Categorize incoming support tickets by complexity and urgency
• Extract key information from contracts or documents
• Moderate user-generated content for compliance

Business Operations

• Flag unusual financial transactions for review
• Route leads to appropriate sales representatives
• Monitor social media mentions for brand reputation

Data Enrichment

• Add missing information to customer profiles
• Standardize and clean imported data
• Generate summaries of complex datasets

Getting Started with Agents

Agents live in columns within your datasets, making their outputs immediately available alongside your existing data. This integration means agent insights become part of your standard data analysis and reporting workflows.

Whether you need simple data classification or complex multi-step business processes, agents provide the intelligence layer that transforms raw data into automated business value.