What is an AI employee?
An AI employee, also called a digital worker or digital employee, is an AI agent given a role in your team rather than a single task. Like a new hire, it gets a job description, access to the tools that job needs, and examples of good work. Unlike a chat assistant, it does the work itself: it opens the CRM, writes and sends the follow-up, logs the result and tells you what happened. Unlike traditional automation, you don't build flows; you describe the job in plain words and correct it the way you would coach a colleague. A Terabot AI employee has its own computer, a private virtual machine that stays on, so it can use web apps through the screen, including ones with no integration, and keep working through nights, weekends and holidays. It does not take leave, and it does not mind repetitive work.
AI employee vs hiring a person
Full comparison: Terabot vs hiring staff.
| AI employee | New hire | |
|---|---|---|
| Hours | Around the clock | Working hours, leave, holidays |
| Start time | Describe the job and it starts | Recruit, onboard, train |
| Best at | Repeatable steps on a computer | Judgement, relationships, new problems |
| Scaling | Add workers on your plan | Hire again |
| Cost shape | A monthly plan | Salary, benefits, equipment |
Which jobs should you give an AI employee?
Keep with people: decisions that commit the company, negotiations, complaints that need empathy, and anything new or unclear.
- Sales: replying to enquiries, following up, booking meetings.
- Support: answering customers on email, chat and WhatsApp, checking orders.
- Back office: invoices, data entry, matching payments, reports.
- Operations: moving data between apps, filing documents.
How do you onboard an AI employee?
Treat it like a new hire with a narrow first role. Write a one-page job description: the job, the apps it uses, what good looks like, and what it must hand to a person. Share examples of past work, your tone of voice and your policies. Give access only to the apps the role needs. In the first week, review everything it produces and correct it in plain words; that feedback is how it learns your way of working. Agree simple measures, such as response time, follow-ups sent, or hours of data entry saved. When the results are steady, move to a daily summary and widen the role, or hire a second AI employee for the next job. Most teams find the onboarding takes days, not the months a human hire needs, but the review in week one still matters.