AI assistants vs. agents 

June 11, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. ET/2:00 p.m. U.K.Orange rectangular button with “Register Now” written in all caps and white text.

Voxpopme’s logo. The letter ‘V’ is made of purple triangles. Below is the word “Voxpopme” spelt out in purple.What changes when AI stops answering and starts delivering? 

There's AI in every browser tab. In every research platform. In the transcript that codes itself. And yet when leadership asks, "What do we already know about this?" you're still digging through old projects, hunting the right clip, building the deck from scratch. Still doing the work. 

Agents are different. You give them the goal. They find the evidence, build the answer and tell you what's missing. 

There are three layers of AI in research right now. Each one does something different:

  • Non-research LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) – clever, but every conversation starts from zero.
  • LLMs in research platforms – your data, in a chat window, waiting for the right question.
  • Research agents (like Voxpopme Compass) – give them the goal, they bring back the answer, the deliverable and a pointer to what's missing. 

All three are AI. Only one finishes the job. We'll show all three answering the same question, live. Same answer. Very different work done. 

Key takeaways:

  1. A simple way to read the AI landscape in research – and how to tell which layer your team actually needs.
  2. The agent test – how to spot an agent versus an LLM with a chat window strapped on.
  3. A practical view of where today's AI delivers and where the agent shift starts paying off. 

Presenter:

Tom Higgins’ headshot on a gray background.Tom Higgins, senior growth and product marketer, Voxpopme

Tom Higgins is a product marketing leader at Voxpopme, where he's spent over a decade at the intersection of technology and human understanding. As senior product marketing manager, he helps shape how one of the insights industry's most innovative platforms communicates its value – translating complex AI and video research capabilities into ideas that resonate with researchers, strategists and insight teams worldwide. Tom's work sits where tech meets research and he's passionate about making that intersection feel less like disruption and more like empowerment for the people doing the work. His perspective is shaped by years of watching insight teams wrestle with the gap between data volume and genuine understanding – and helping build the tools to close it.