ChatGPT subscribers can now ask the artificial intelligence assistant to set reminders and perform certain recurring tasks on a regular basis. The new feature is called Tasks and it’s being launched in beta this week for ChatGPT Plus, Team and Pro users.

Although there has been no official announcement from OpenAI, reports from VentureBeat, TechCrunch and others say that the Tasks feature allows users to set reminders with ChatGPT. For instance, they can ask it to remind them that their passport expires in six months, and send a push notification on the platform of their choosing.

In addition, users can also schedule recurring requests. For instance, they could tell it to provide them with a weekend plan based on their location and the weather forecast every Friday. Alternatively, someone might ask for a news briefing tailored to personal interests once a day at 7 a.m.

VentureBeat suggests that Tasks appears to be one of the company’s first forays into “AI agents,” which are more advanced large language models that can act semi-independently to perform actions on behalf of users.

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said last year he believes 2025 will be a momentous year for AI agents, insisting that they’ll finally start to join the workforce at many organizations. That may be so, but for now Tasks is pretty limited in what it can do, even though the ability to schedule reminders is certainly useful.

It’s a feature that many already use with other digital assistants, such as Amazon.com Inc.’s Alex and Apple Inc.’s Siri. The recurring requests capability is somewhat more unique, as earlier digital assistants have never been able to do this.

ChatGPT Tasks can be accessed via the dropdown menu by choosing “4o with scheduled tasks” and then instructing the chatbot on what they want it to do. OpenAI says ChatGPT may also suggest certain tasks for users based on the context of their conversations, and existing tasks can be managed directly by talking to ChatGPT or by clicking on a dedicated tasks manager tab on the web application.

It’s certainly a useful feature. Someone can ask ChatGPT to surf the web on a regular schedule, and ask it to check for any concert tickets that might be available for specific bands or artists. ChatGPT would then provide an alert as soon as it finds something suitable. However, it won’t run continuous searches and it won’t be able to make purchases automatically on behalf of users.

The beta testing period will help OpenAI to learn more about how people are using the Tasks feature, so it can refine its capabilities ahead of a more general release.

Meanwhile, the company is said to be preparing for the launch of a much more advanced AI agents, including one called “Operator” that will be able to book hotels and flights for travelers, write code and more. A recent report in Bloomberg says OpenAI could launch Operator in just a few weeks.

However, OpenAI will need to remain cautious about agentic AI, for more complex algorithms have much more potential to cause problems. Don’t be surprised if we see more of a staggered rollout of agentic AI capabilities that gives the company time to test the waters and ensure whatever safety guardrails it puts in place are up to the job.

Image: OpenAI