Personal
Ordering the weekly groceries
The demo everyone shows. Fifteen to forty actions, of which two actually require judgement.
What happens
- Open the supermarket site and sign in
- Pull up a previous order as the basis for this one
- Add each item to the basket, checking availability
- Handle the substitution prompt when the oat milk is out of stock
- Choose a delivery slot that fits the constraints you gave
- Stop at the payment screen and hand back
This is the task that sells the category, and it is worth looking at what the agent is really doing. Of thirty-odd actions, twenty-eight are trivial clicking. Two are genuine decisions: whether the offered substitution is acceptable, and which delivery slot fits. That ratio is typical of consumer tasks, and it explains both the appeal and the limits — the clicking was never the hard part.
Where it breaks
Checkout. Most agents are deliberately built to stop before payment and hand back to you, and any that do not should worry you. Cookie banners and promotional interstitials also consume actions and occasionally capture the agent's attention completely.