8/10/2025

Getting Started with Computer Use Agents on GPT-5: A No-BS Guide

Alright, let's talk about the next BIG thing that's quietly landed and is already starting to shake things up: computer use agents, especially now with the muscle of GPT-5 behind them. If you’ve been hearing the buzzwords "AI agents" & "agentic AI" thrown around, you're in the right place. We're going to break down what this all means, how you can actually start using it, & whether it lives up to the hype.

Honestly, the whole idea is pretty simple, but the execution is where it gets wild. For years, we've been telling our computers what to do, step-by-step. With AI agents, you give them a goal, & they figure out the steps themselves. Think of it less like a calculator & more like a super-smart intern who can use a computer, browse the web, & get stuff done for you.

And now, with the release of GPT-5, these agents are getting a serious upgrade. We're talking about a leap in reasoning capabilities that makes them more reliable & capable of handling way more complex tasks. It’s a game-changer, for sure.

So, What Exactly IS an AI Agent?

Before we dive into the GPT-5 goodness, let's get on the same page. An AI agent, or a computer use agent, is a system that can perceive its environment, make decisions, & take actions to achieve a specific goal. In the context of your computer, this means it can do things like:

Open applications
Browse websites
Fill out forms
Analyze data in a spreadsheet
Write & debug code
Manage your files

The key difference between this & a simple script is the "reasoning" part. You don't have to program every single click. You give it a high-level command like, "Find the top three competitors for my new e-commerce store, summarize their marketing strategies, & put it in a document." The agent then breaks that down into a series of actions: searching Google, visiting websites, reading content, summarizing it, & creating a file. Pretty cool, right?

The problem, historically, has been that they were a bit… clumsy. A May 2025 Carnegie Mellon University study found that even the best agents, like Google's Gemini Pro 2.5, failed at real-world office tasks 70% of the time. And the agent powered by GPT-4o? It failed over 90% of the time. That’s where GPT-5 comes in, promising to bridge this gap between concept & reality.

Enter GPT-5: The New Brains of the Operation

The big news in mid-2025 was OpenAI finally dropping GPT-5, & Microsoft immediately started weaving it into EVERYTHING. We're not just talking about a slightly better ChatGPT. We're talking about a whole suite of models designed for different purposes, which is a HUGE deal for building capable agents.

Here's the breakdown of the new GPT-5 family, available through platforms like Microsoft's Azure AI Foundry:

GPT-5 (the full model): This is the powerhouse. It has deep, rich reasoning capabilities & a massive 272k token context window, making it perfect for complex, multi-step tasks like planning a project, generating tons of code, or doing in-depth analysis.
GPT-5 mini: This one is optimized for real-time experiences. Think of chatbots or agents that need to quickly understand a situation & call the right tool to solve a problem.
GPT-5 nano: A new class of model focused on being SUPER fast & low-latency. Ideal for high-volume Q&A or tasks where speed is the most important thing.
GPT-5 chat: This is for creating natural, multi-turn conversations that remember what you've been talking about. It has a 128k token context, so it can handle long, complex dialogues without getting lost.

What this means for agents is that developers can now use the right tool for the right job. They can even use a "model router" in Azure AI Foundry that automatically picks the best model for a given prompt based on complexity, cost, & performance needs. This makes building sophisticated agents more efficient & cost-effective.

How to Actually Get Started: The Developer's Playground

Okay, enough with the theory. How do you start building these things? The ecosystem is exploding, but the most integrated & powerful entry point right now seems to be through Microsoft's developer tools.

Azure AI Foundry & VS Code

If you're a developer, your new best friends are Azure AI Foundry & Visual Studio Code. Microsoft has gone all-in on making this the central hub for creating GPT-5 powered agents.

Here's the gist:

Access through Azure: You can get access to the entire GPT-5 family of models via an API in Azure AI Foundry. This gives you the enterprise-grade security & compliance that businesses need.
Develop in VS Code: You don't even have to leave your code editor. There's an Azure AI Foundry extension for VS Code that lets you develop, test, & deploy agents right from where you're comfortable.
GitHub Copilot on Steroids: GitHub Copilot now has GPT-5 integrated into all its paid plans. This isn't just about better code suggestions. It can handle much more complex, "agentic" coding tasks. It can help plan workflows, build migrations, refactor large chunks of code, & even write tests & documentation with a clear rationale. It’s like having a senior developer pair-programming with you 24/7.

A community article on Hugging Face showed a cool comparison where they swapped GPT-4o with GPT-5 for a simple task: navigating to a random URL & playing a game. The GPT-5 agent was noticeably better & more efficient. You can even check out the project on GitHub to see how it's done. This shows that even outside the big corporate tools, the community is already running with this & building amazing things.

Building Smarter Customer Service with AI

Here's a practical business application that's getting a major boost: customer service. Businesses are constantly looking for ways to provide better, faster support without ballooning their costs. This is where AI agents, especially those you can build yourself, become incredibly valuable.

For instance, a platform like Arsturn lets businesses build no-code AI chatbots trained on their own data. Imagine feeding your entire knowledge base, product documentation, & past customer support tickets into an AI. With the power of models like GPT-5, that chatbot becomes a frontline support agent. It can provide instant, personalized answers to customer questions 24/7.

When a customer asks, "How do I integrate your product with Salesforce?", the AI doesn't just give a generic answer. It can access the specific documentation & provide a step-by-step guide. If the question is more complex, like "My bill seems incorrect, can you check it?", an agent could potentially authenticate the user, check the billing system, & identify the discrepancy—all within a single conversation. This frees up human agents to handle the truly complex, high-touch issues, dramatically improving efficiency & customer satisfaction.

The Reality Check: Are Agents REALLY Ready for the Workforce?

Now for the dose of reality. As exciting as all this is, the dream of a fully autonomous AI agent seamlessly running your business is still just that—a dream. The hype is massive, but the actual experience can be… well, a bit janky.

Chris Taylor at Mashable put it perfectly, pointing out that reviews for many current AI agents are filled with words like "glitchy," "inconsistent," & "clueless." The core problem is that errors compound. An agent that is 99% reliable on a single step becomes significantly less reliable over a 10-step task. A small mistake in step 2 can lead to a "catastrophic error in judgment" by step 9. There was even a story about a Replit AI agent that deleted a customer's database after working on a coding task for 9 days. OUCH.

Here are some of the key hurdles we still need to overcome:

Reliability & Compounding Errors: As mentioned, the more steps an agent takes, the higher the chance of it going off the rails. GPT-5 improves this with better reasoning, but it doesn't eliminate the problem entirely.
Security Vulnerabilities: We're just beginning to understand the security risks. Researchers have found that data embedded in images can trick an agent into revealing sensitive information like credit card numbers, without the user even knowing.
Corporate Guardrails: Companies are understandably nervous about letting autonomous agents run wild on their platforms. Amazon, for example, has blocked AI agents from being able to browse & buy on their site. This makes sense for them, but it also curtails a huge amount of potential agent activity.
The Hype Cycle: A recent Gartner paper predicted that 40% of all AI agent projects started by companies will be canceled within two years because they were "driven by hype and misapplied."

The Real-World Impact: Where It's Actually Working

Despite the challenges, GPT-5 powered agents are already making a tangible impact in several key areas, especially within large enterprises that have the resources to implement them carefully.

Research & Knowledge Work: Companies like Hebbia are using this tech to help financial professionals analyze thousands of documents to find critical figures with incredible speed & accuracy.
Legal Tech: Relativity is using GPT-5 to empower legal teams to uncover deeper insights from massive amounts of legal data, accelerating decision-making.
Software Engineering: As we've discussed, the impact on developers is immediate. SAP is leveraging GPT-5 in their AI Foundation to drive business innovations. The ability of agents to handle complex coding, testing, & deployment tasks is a massive productivity booster.
Boosting Website Engagement & Conversions: Beyond just answering support questions, AI agents are transforming how businesses interact with visitors on their websites. Imagine a visitor lands on your pricing page. Instead of just a static page, an AI agent can proactively engage them. This is where a tool like Arsturn comes into play. Businesses can build a no-code AI chatbot that's trained on their sales & marketing data. This chatbot can ask qualifying questions, understand the visitor's needs, & guide them to the right plan. It can offer to book a demo, provide a custom quote, or highlight key features relevant to the user's industry. This kind of personalized, conversational experience is WAY more effective than a simple contact form & can significantly boost lead generation & conversions.

The Road Ahead

So, here's the thing. Getting started with computer use agents on GPT-5 is both easier & more complex than it sounds.

It's easier because the tools are finally here. With platforms like Azure AI Foundry & the new capabilities in GitHub Copilot, developers can start building and experimenting RIGHT NOW. And for businesses, no-code solutions like Arsturn make it possible to deploy sophisticated AI for customer engagement without writing a single line of code.

It's more complex because this isn't a plug-and-play solution that will magically solve all your problems. It requires careful thought, a clear understanding of the limitations, & a healthy dose of skepticism to cut through the hype. We are in the early innings of a major technological shift. The first AI agents might not be perfect, but they are a sign of what's to come. They are already changing how we code, how we analyze information, & how businesses connect with their customers.

My advice? Start playing with it. If you're a developer, dive into VS Code & Azure. If you're a business owner, look at practical tools like Arsturn that can deliver real value today. The best way to understand the future is to start building it.

Hope this was helpful! Let me know what you think.