At midnight on July 18, 2025, Beijing time, OpenAI officially launched ChatGPT Agent, a multimodal general-purpose AI assistant. By leveraging its core capabilities of autonomous thinking and tool selection to accomplish complex tasks, it redefines the boundaries of human-AI collaboration. It integrates the web interaction capabilities of Operator, the information integration capabilities of Deep Research, and the deep conversational abilities of ChatGPT, creating a powerful unified intelligent system that offers users a new experience from information processing to task execution.
As another milestone in the field of artificial intelligence, the release of ChatGPT Agent breaks the limitations of traditional human-computer interaction, allowing machines to understand human intentions more deeply and proactively plan execution paths. Whether in high-intensity knowledge work in professional fields or handling mundane daily tasks, it can provide efficient and accurate solutions by harnessing its powerful tool invocation and task decomposition capabilities, signaling the official arrival of the intelligent agent era.
Core Technological Breakthrough: Leap in Autonomous Planning and Complex Task Handling
What stands out most about ChatGPT Agent is its ability to autonomously plan tasks and select tools. It can break down tasks dynamically based on user natural language instructions and flexibly call upon a built-in toolchain, such as visual browsers, text parsers, terminals, API callers, etc., to automate the entire process from information retrieval to execution. For example, when a user describes a task like “Recommend a suit and gift based on a wedding invitation,” the Agent will independently check the weather for the event day, filter suitable products on major e-commerce platforms, generate a matching scheme, and show each step of the process in real-time, allowing the user to clearly understand the progress.
In handling complex tasks, ChatGPT Agent demonstrates remarkable capabilities. In internal benchmarking tests, it can perform tasks typical of entry-level investment banking analysts, such as building financial statement models or leveraged buyout models for Fortune 500 companies. In half of the cases, its output quality matches or even surpasses that of human experts. In the “Human Ultimate Exam” (HLE), the pass rate for a single attempt reached 41.6%, which increased to 44.4% with parallel strategies. In cutting-edge mathematical benchmarks, it achieved an accuracy rate of 27.4%, significantly outperforming previous models.
Additionally, its multimodal execution and output abilities are exceptional. The Agent can generate editable slides, spreadsheets, and visual roadmaps. For example, when planning a viewing route for 30 baseball stadiums across the United States, it can automatically integrate schedule data, recommend nearby hotels, and generate Excel tables and map visualizations. Its virtual computing environment can directly run code to perform data analysis and create charts, even using APIs to generate image designs for stickers and complete e-commerce price comparisons.
Expanding Application Scenarios: Deep Integration in Professional Fields and Secure Collaboration
In terms of deep integration in professional fields, ChatGPT Agent can search and consolidate hundreds of resources online to generate research analyst-level reports for high-intensity knowledge work scenarios in finance, research, and engineering. For example, after uploading a medical report, the Agent not only verifies expert conclusions but also retrieves the latest research findings, providing healthcare professionals with more references. Its Deep Research functionality is available to Pro/Plus users, offering about 10 calls per month.
Secure and controllable human-AI collaboration is one of ChatGPT Agent’s key highlights. Before performing sensitive operations like payments or submitting personal data, the Agent will explicitly request user authorization, and if the user leaves a financial website tab, the operation is automatically terminated to ensure the user’s information security. During task execution, users can interrupt, modify commands, or manually take control of the browser to ensure the process meets their needs. For instance, when recommending a suit, if the user inserts a new request like “Find black dress shoes in size 9.5,” the Agent will immediately adjust the task priorities to accommodate the new requirement.
Furthermore, ChatGPT Agent supports multi-platform adaptation and workflow integration. It is usable on mobile devices, and once a task is completed, the results are automatically pushed to the user for easy viewing. Through connectors, it can integrate with applications like Gmail and GitHub, enabling functions such as email content summarization and code repository analysis. For example, when asked to “check the calendar and report client meetings,” the Agent will proactively extract relevant information from the calendar app and generate a concise report.
Release Strategy and Future Outlook: Permission Levels and Continuous Optimization
In terms of access permissions, Pro users can start using the Agent mode immediately, with a monthly allocation of 400 calls; Plus and Team users will be granted access in the next few days, with a monthly allocation of 40 calls; enterprise and education versions are scheduled to launch in a few weeks.
The tool entry is conveniently set up; users can choose “Agent Mode” from the “Tools” menu at the bottom-left corner of the ChatGPT conversation interface and then initiate tasks by describing them in natural language.
Looking ahead, OpenAI plans to extend Agent functionality to mobile platforms this month and gradually integrate more specialized data sources, such as enterprise internal databases, to improve personalization and robustness in the outputs.
Of course, ChatGPT Agent currently has some limitations. For instance, the generated PowerPoint presentations still lack aesthetic appeal and do not support secondary editing; high-risk tasks like financial transactions and sensitive legal interactions are proactively rejected; certain complex operations, such as directly editing Office documents, still require code generation and are unlikely to replace traditional office software in the short term.
Despite these limitations, the release of ChatGPT Agent marks a significant step forward for OpenAI on the path to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). Its ability to combine reasoning, execution, and collaboration is reshaping the paradigm of human-AI interaction. With the continued expansion of the tool ecosystem, ChatGPT Agent is poised to become a “super digital assistant” for individuals and organizations, playing a crucial role in more fields.
