What is computer use for an AI agent?
Computer use means an agent operates software through the screen: it can open pages, click, and type, the way a person would. A browser agent is the same idea limited to the web. It is not the same as calling an API.
Also called: browser agent
In plain English
If there is no API, some products offer an agent that drives the website instead. That can book, buy, or change a setting if you let it. It can also click the wrong row. You should be able to watch it and stop it. Vendor names for this change. Read the product's current help before you assume a button exists. Watch it the way you would watch a new hire on your computer. Start in a test account with no saved cards and no customer export. Clicking is slower and easier to fool than a proper connection. A pop-up, a password prompt, or a lookalike button can send it somewhere you did not intend. If an API or a connector exists, prefer that. Use the screen when there is no other door, and stay nearby.
How an owner would use it
Prefer an API or a connector when one exists. If you try computer use, start on a test account with no real customers and no saved card. Sit with it. Do not leave it signed into the live admin overnight.
Common mistakes
Computer use with a saved card and a live login is how an agent buys or refunds while you are on a job. It is slower and less reliable than an API for the same task. Do not use it to bypass a site's login on someone else's account. Do not confuse it with ordinary web search, which reads pages and does not click buttons for you.
A worked example
A print shop
The test store, not the live checkout
This is an illustration, not a customer result. The owner points a browser agent at a throwaway store admin to see if it can download yesterday's order CSV. It works once, then mis-clicks a refund in the test store. They stop. The live shop stays on the existing export, done by a person.
Related terms
Prompts and guides
Questions owners ask
What is computer use?
It is an agent driving a screen or browser to complete a task, instead of calling a documented API.
How do I try computer use safely?
Use a test login with no payment method and no real customer data. Watch the run. Move to a connector if the vendor of your system offers one.
Is a browser agent different?
A browser agent is computer use aimed at websites. The risk is the same: it can click anything the logged-in user can click.
Product guides are on AI apps for business.