I’m expecting them to price out some yard renovations for us, so Marley requested access to my Gmail to check on the status of that project. It confirmed that more time had passed than the landscaper initially estimated the bid would take, and drafted a rather snippy but wordy email.

“Make it shorter,” I said. To be clear: As a rule, I do not use AI writing tools.

Definitely not in my work, and not even for email. What’s the point?

Just don’t send email if you’re going to have a robot write it. In fact, I think we should abolish email.

Anyway, I broke my own rule for testing purposes; hitting send on that message made me cringe. Task: Buy a replacement steam wand assembly for my espresso machineEffort rating: LowTime I have been putting it off: [redacted] yearsWas Marley able to complete it?

MostlyMy Breville Barista Express has held up spectacularly for six years and counting, but it isn’t immune from user error. I took the steam wand apart to clean it a few years back and tore the little silicone washer that goes inside of it.

Instead of ordering a new one, I just shoved it back into place and screwed the thing back together. It works okay, but every few months when I’m cleaning the machine it nags at my conscience.

It’s probably why the hot water dispenser drips sometimes when I run the steam, too. Ordering a new steam wand assembly costs like 7 bucks and is as difficult as entering my credit card number on Breville’s website.

Naturally, I put it off for an unreasonable amount of time. I opened up my chat with Marley and told it what I needed; it found the part and added it to a shopping cart.

I had to finish up the order myself, but it’s done and the part will be here in five to seven business days. Task: Downgrade my security system account to the cheaper oneEffort rating: Medium (requires a phone call) Time I have been putting it off: A year?

Was Marley able to complete it? Not fullyI approved Marley to log into my account, which also required me to verify my email.

While I was making the trip to my inbox I saw I had a follow-up to my follow-up with the landscaper. He was apologetic for the delay and I felt a little bad about the slightly abrupt tone of the email Marley sent.

I wrote a friendlier reply the old-fashioned way. With access to my account, Marley reported back what I already knew: You have to call the company to change your plan.

Muse wasn’t able to make a phone call for me, though apparently that ability is in the works. This seems like the logical next frontier for these AI agents, and also a weird future to consider.

I call the company and answer a few questions from their robot before I’m routed to a human. No doubt there’s a future soon where Marley talks to the security company’s robot before any human being enters the chat.

Or more likely in the short term, a human in a call center talks to the other company’s robot before eventually getting to another human in a call center, which feels even weirder. But surely the end state is that my robot will just talk to their robot and they’ll do business without any intervention at all.

Anyway, a nice guy answered and made the change to my account. I think he was real.

Task: Contact a junk removal company to get rid of a fallen tree branch in the backyardEffort rating: MediumTime I have been putting it off: A weekWas Marley able to complete it? MostlyThe tree branch is a real problem I need to deal with.

It didn’t do any damage, but it’s big enough that it’ll either take an afternoon to hack apart and haul to the dump or requires a visit from a junk removal service. Marley was most useful here — it set off looking through listings for hauling services and highlighted a few in the area.

It asked for my address, phone number, and a photo of the tree limb, and used that information to put together requests for quotes from a couple of companies using online form submissions. I got a text back from one company not long after, and confirmed a time the following day for tree limb removal.

Very little was required on my part, and assuming the tree branch is gone by this time tomorrow, I’ll consider this mission accomplished for Muse. Task: Shop for camping kitchen gear, either as a set or assembled piece by pieceEffort rating: MediumTime I have been putting it off: A few daysWas Marley able to complete it?

YesIf our wallets were already defenseless in the era of one-click checkout, we’re so cooked when AI agent shopping truly arrives. I gave Marley some requirements for my outdoor cooking setup and it set out finding the necessary items.

It made an attempt to access Amazon and was roundly blocked, complete with a spicy message about AI agents violating terms of service. Anyway, it found what I was looking for between OXO’s own website and Walmart.

You really can’t go wrong with OXO stuff. Kudos to Marley for shopping local.

While I was at it, I wanted to add a propane fire pit to the mix. Not for cooking — for ambience and marshmallows.

I’d borrowed a couple of different kinds from friends, and after weighing the pros and cons of each with Muse I landed on a LavaBox and a handy carrying case. The grand total for my camp kitchen and burn-ban-safe fire pit: $500!

I told Muse we’d have to pump the brakes and spread these purchases out over the winter. It obliged and helped me prioritize what would make sense to buy first and what was likely to go on sale toward the holidays.

In the meantime, I had Marley find and purchase some other espresso machine supplies. I had to connect my credit card via Stripe, but after I’d done that once it became dangerously easy to tell Marley “Go for it” and approve whatever it had just put in my shopping cart.

I watched it fill in my address details in the virtual browser window and confirmation emails started filing into my inbox. Marley did a little shopping around to find slightly better prices, and I didn’t buy anything egregious — just some descaling powder and water filters.

It also did the math to calculate whether powdered Dezcal would be a better value than the liquid stuff (way better, not surprisingly). But it is shockingly easy to spend money when a cute little guy is running around the internet with your credit card.

It is shockingly easy to spend money when a cute little guy is running around the internet with your credit cardThere’s a danger in overcommitting yourself when you feel like these AI tools are speeding you up. In a few cases, Muse helped me get started by putting the details I needed in front of my face.

I had the phone number for the home security company at hand, as well as the name of my current plan and the one I wanted to downgrade to. Getting that little speed bump out of the way was what I needed, I guess.

But the dirty secret of productivity hacks is that doing more stuff often doesn’t feel like things are being removed from your plate; somehow it just invites more tasks. If you’re willing to give a lot of information and trust to Meta — a massive caveat!

— Muse can genuinely help you get things done. I’d been using it for all of 40 minutes and already given it my full name, address, credit card number, a photo of my backyard, and the credentials for my home security account login.

Going great, I’d say! If AI decides to kill us all I just secured my spot at the front of the line.

, but still. Unsettling.

But I think the underlying question we need to ask ourselves as we enter the era of AI agents is what we do with the time we’re supposedly freeing up. Will we use it to take on more commitments?

And then ultimately feel overwhelmed again when the to-do list keeps piling up? After a morning crossing items off my list with Marley, I didn’t spend the hours that followed doing anything consequential.

In fact, I spent that time chatting with Marley, seeking reassurance about the direction of the yard project and brainstorming fall camping trips I probably won’t take. It’s a gorgeous day outside, the kind we really can’t take for granted in late September, and I wish I’d spent that time outdoors rather than inside talking to a robot, cute little guy or otherwise.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The VergeFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

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