In this episode of the Australian Finance Podcast, Owen Rask speaks with Jon Stahl from Salesforce about how AI agents are moving beyond answering questions and starting to complete real work inside businesses. Jon explains the difference between a chatbot and an agent, including how agents can reason through multistep tasks, call tools and APIs, update business systems and retain useful context. He shares where the technology is already creating value across customer service, software development, research, order management and commerce. The conversation also tackles the controls businesses need before giving an AI agent meaningful autonomy. Jon compares an agent to the “world’s smartest but least experienced intern” and explains why permissions, clear identities, audit logs, hard-coded guardrails and human escalation remain essential. Owen and Jon then explore what must happen before agents can safely buy products or make payments on our behalf. That includes verified authority, spending limits, tokenised payment credentials, merchant recognition and common standards across the payments ecosystem — challenges that cannot be solved by a smarter language model alone. Finally, Jon separates the hype from the practical opportunity. Fully autonomous shopping is still largely experimental, while brand, trust and storefronts remain important. He also explains why trusted business data can dramatically improve an agent’s usefulness, and how businesses may soon use agents to resolve delayed orders, enrich product catalogues, support sales teams and help employees build their own tools. *Chapters* 00:00 Introduction 01:53 AI Agents in Business 03:10 Where Agents Create Value 07:19 Agents vs. Chatbots 09:30 Permissions & Controls 13:38 Safe AI Purchases 17:47 What's Overhyped 26:15 What's Underhyped 28:09 Five Years Ahead 31:32 Surprising Uses Today 36:55 Closing Thoughts *Episode resources* - Speak with the Rask Advice team: https://rask.com.au/advice - Ask a question (select the Investors podcast): https://bit.ly/R-quest *Show partner resources* - ETF investor? Go beyond ordinary with Global X: View all funds https://www.globalxetfs.com.au - Join Pearler using the code "RASKSWITCH" and get $32 of Pearler Credit: https://bit.ly/Pearler - Whatever comes next for your business, power it with Stripe: https://stripe.com *Rask resources* - All services: https://bit.ly/R-services - Financial Planning: https://bit.ly/R-plan - Invest with us: https://bit.ly/R-invest - Access Show Notes: https://bit.ly/R-notes - Ask a question: https://bit.ly/R-quest - We love feedback! https://raskau.typeform.com/to/ZbfHy6IP *Follow us on social media* - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rask.invest - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rask.invest *Disclaimer* This podcast episode was sponsored by Stripe. The information in this episode is provided by The Rask Group Pty Ltd and contains general financial product advice only. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting, consider whether the information is appropriate for you and consider seeking personal advice from a licensed financial adviser. You can read our Financial Services Guide at www.rask.com.au/fsg. If a financial product is mentioned, consider the relevant PDS and TMD, where applicable, before making any financial decision. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Returns are not guaranteed and capital may be at risk. The Rask Group Pty Ltd is a Corporate Authorised Representative No. 1280930 of Rask Licensing Pty Ltd, AFSL 563 907.