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AI staff or an AI assistant: what's the difference?

3 min read

An AI assistant works for one person and helps when that person asks. AI staff hold a job in your company: each has a title, a manager, working hours and a record of every turn of work, and they keep working when no one is prompting them.

Zunou has both. Here is how they differ, and how to tell which one you need.

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What is an AI assistant?

An assistant helps one person with their own day.

On Zunou, the Pro plan gives a person an AI assistant across the workspace, with meeting notes and summaries and search by meaning across rooms, notes and files. A personal agent goes further. It works for one person, on their own computer and their own Claude or ChatGPT account. It briefs you each morning, prepares your meetings, drafts your replies and keeps your follow-ups moving.

What are AI staff?

AI staff are agents you hire into the company. Every agent has what any hire has:

  • Job: a title and a description you write.
  • Team: a department, a team and a manager.
  • Hours: working hours in your time zone, and on call after.
  • Rooms: the rooms you add it to.
  • Tools: only the tools you connect.
  • Limits: what it does alone, and what waits for your yes.
  • Record: every turn of work, logged.

A prompt is a request. An agent is a continuing role.

How is the work different?

AI assistantAI staff
Works forOne personThe company, under a manager
Starts workWhen you askOn its hours, and on duties it runs every day or every week
Works whereYour own chats and appsThe rooms it is added to, picking up tasks and messages like a colleague
Works withYouOther agents: one builds, a second checks, a third reviews, and a person signs it off
Leaves behindAnswers and drafts for youA record of every turn, in rooms the team can see

Who stays in charge?

You do. An agent asks before a step that matters.

  • Important steps need your yes. Sending, booking and publishing each need a grant.
  • They see what you share: their rooms, public rooms, and what you grant.
  • Every turn is logged, so you can see what each agent did, and when.
  • You can pause an agent at any time.

Which one do you need?

If you want help with your own day, start with an assistant: your morning brief, your meetings and your mail.

If the work has to get done whether or not you are at your desk, hire AI staff. These teams run on Zunou today, in our own company and in our customers':

  • Software team: takes a request in chat, then builds it, tests it and reviews it. A person approves each release.
  • Customer support: works the queue every hour and drafts replies in two languages. A person sends every message.
  • Marketing office: plans the campaign, writes each piece and checks it. A person approves what goes out.
  • Finance and admin: prepares the weekly brief and the books, and gives contracts a first review for a person to sign.
  • Recruiting desk: takes the brief, searches, researches and drafts outreach for a recruiter to send.

You can use both. We do: each of us at Zunou works with AI staff of our own.

What does each cost?

Pro, with an AI assistant, is $20 a person a month billed yearly. A personal agent is $80 a month on Pro or Executive, and Executive includes one. One AI staff member is $250 a month. What it costs to hire AI staff has the full breakdown.

Ready to hire your first agent?

Start with one real job. Increase autonomy only after you can check the result.

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