4 min read
An AI Employee that uses the web while you watch
Watch an AI Employee work in a live browser. Take over and hand back, steer or stop it, and every send gets five seconds to cancel.
Hoffmann Tischlerei is building a floor-to-ceiling oak wardrobe for Familie Krüger, and the doors need hinges. Lena knows the maker, Hettich, and roughly what she wants: soft close, full overlay, a 19 mm door. What she doesn't want is twenty minutes in a manufacturer's shop clicking through hinge series and fixing variants.
So she asks the Researcher, and watches it do the clicking.
One sentence, one answer
Lena wrote: "Go to hettich.com and find the Sensys hinge for a 19 mm door with full overlay and soft close. Tell me the article number and what the product page says about the opening angle."
Fifty-two seconds later the answer was in the thread: the Sensys 8645i, article number 9073605, 110 degrees, with each requirement checked against what the product page says, quoted in the page's own German where it matters. It even pointed out that other fixing variants carry different article numbers, which is the kind of thing that turns into a wrong order.
Watching it work
The next question was harder: which mounting plates fit that hinge, and what does each cost? This time the browser opened beside the thread.
The panel is the real browser, live. The header says where it is: The Researcher is working on shop.hettich.com. While it clicks and types, a chip over the page reads The Researcher is controlling the browser, and the work row in the thread names each step as it goes.
Every AI Employee has a browser, not only the Researcher. Each thread gets its own, so two pieces of work never share one by accident.
Take over, hand back
Some things you'd rather do yourself, and some things only you can do. Press Take over (or click into the page) and the browser is yours: You are driving, and the AI Employee waits. When you are done, press Hand back. That posts "Done, carry on." in the thread and the work picks up where you left it. Writing any line in the thread hands it back too.
When the AI Employee gets stuck on something it shouldn't do alone, it asks you. The panel reads The Researcher needs you with the reason, and you get a notification. A sign-in it wasn't given, or a check that wants a person: take over, do it, hand back.
Sending a form, with five seconds to stop it
Reading a page needs nobody's permission. Sending something is different. When an AI Employee is about to send a form or press a button like Post or Send, the panel shows Sending the form on the site's name with a five-second countdown and a Stop button. Press Stop, or Take over, and nothing is sent. A plain search box on the same site goes straight away.
A form is only ever sent from a thread you are in, where you can see it and stop it. A scheduled task or a "When this happens" rule running on its own can read pages but never send a form.
Passwords, codes and cards
If a site needs a sign-in, write it in your message: the address, the user name, the password. The AI Employee types it on that site only, and never repeats it in its reply. What it reads back off a page shows a password field as hidden. Nothing is saved between sessions, so each browser starts signed out and you give it again next time. For a one-time code sent to your phone, take over and type it yourself.
Card details are never typed by an AI Employee, and a form with a card field is never sent for you. It will stop and ask you to take over.
Steer it, or stop it
You don't have to wait for the work to finish to change your mind. While an AI Employee works, the reply field reads Steer the Researcher or add to this. Write "only the plates with screw fixing" and the line is marked Sent while working, then Seen by the Researcher once it has read it. It takes the line into account at its next step and says in the reply how.
Stop, next to the send button, ends the work there and then. A countdown in progress ends without sending. The thread says "Stopped by you." and nothing else runs.
What it found, and how it got there
The plates question got an honest answer. The Researcher found the compatible range, including plate 9071670 with its height adjustment, and then said what it could not find.
No prices were shown on the public pages, so the reply says a dealer quote is needed instead of guessing a number. Every reply also carries How I got this next to its receipt: it lists the sites read, by name, and any colleague that was asked. How the work stays in order covers receipts and threads.
What to know
- The browser opens public web addresses (http or https), including a search engine when there is something to look up. Addresses inside your own network are refused.
- It doesn't download files and doesn't pay for anything.
- A browser closes after ten minutes of quiet, or half an hour after it opened. Close it yourself from the panel's menu with Close browser.
- You can have three browsers open at once. A fourth is refused until one of them closes.
- When one AI Employee passes a request to a colleague, the colleague works in the asking thread's own browser, already signed in where the first one was, and you watch it there.
Where to go next
Try it on your own business.
One subscription covers all five AI Employees and everything in these articles.
