Need to attend a meeting, order groceries or book a flight? There’s an ‘AI agent’ for that

As big tech developers race to roll out the next generation of artificial intelligence, some people are already enlisting an army of AI helpers to check off their daily to-do lists.

These are called agents: AI systems that automatically come up with a plan and execute it at your request. They can take the form of a shopping assistant, a video gaming coach or even a fully self-driving car.

“This notion that we will have our own personalized assistant, if you will, is one way to think about…