Below are concrete, worked examples of “AI digital employees” — autonomous or semi-autonomous software agents that perform specific job roles. Each item shows the role, how the AI works (data/system access + actions), an illustrative in-action snippet or workflow, and common benefits/metrics.

1. Customer Support Agent (Tier‑1 chat)

• What it does: Handles incoming chat and email questions, reads order/CRM data, answers FAQs, issues refunds or return labels for simple cases, and escalates complex cases to a human.
• How it acts: LLM + retrieval from knowledge base + secure API calls to order system + case-creation in ticketing system.
• Example flow: Customer: “My delivery never arrived.” AI: verifies order, sees last checkpoint, offers reship or refund, generates refund in payments system if authorized, updates ticket, and sends confirmation to customer. If unusual (delivery marked delivered but customer disputes), it tags for human review.
• Benefits: Faster response times, higher automation rate (30–80% of queries), lower cost per contact, measurable CSAT uplift.

2. Sales Development Representative (SDR) assistant (outreach + qualification)

• What it does: Scouts CRM for warm leads, drafts personalized outreach sequences, logs activity, books discovery calls when a prospect responds.
• How it acts: Combines intent scoring from email/text, enrichment data from public sources, and calendar APIs to propose times/auto-confirm.
• Example snippet: AI sends personalized email referencing prospect’s recent press release, follows up automatically, and when prospect replies “interested,” books a call and notifies the human AE with context notes.
• Benefits: Higher reply rates, faster pipeline creation, frees salespeople for closing.

3. HR Recruiter / Resume Screener

• What it does: Parses incoming resumes, scores candidates against job criteria, runs initial screening questions by chat or email, schedules interviews for qualified candidates.
• How it acts: Resume OCR/parsing + skill extraction + shortlist generation + calendar integration.
• Example: Candidate uploads resume -> AI scores 1–5, asks tailored pre-screen questions, and schedules an interview with the recruiter for candidates scoring ≥4.
• Benefits: Shorter time-to-hire, more consistent screening, reduction in recruiter workload.

4. Accounts Payable / Invoice Processor

• What it does: Ingests vendor invoices (PDFs/emails), extracts line items via OCR, matches to POs/receipts in ERP, flags mismatches, and initiates payments for matched invoices.
• How it acts: Document AI + business rules + ERP integration + human approval workflow for exceptions.
• Example flow: Invoice uploaded, AI auto-matches PO and approves payment under threshold; mismatched or suspicious invoices are routed to AP analyst.
• Benefits: Reduced manual entry, faster processing cycles, fewer late payments.

5. IT Helpdesk Agent

• What it does: Solves common employee IT issues (password resets, VPN setup, software installs), runs diagnostics, or opens tickets for hardware failures.
• How it acts: Chatbot with privileged identity for directory and endpoint management APIs; scripts for automated remediation.
• Example: Employee reports “printer offline” -> AI runs printer health checks, restarts print spooler, confirms resolution, or escalates if hardware fault.
• Benefits: Faster mean-time-to-resolution, 24/7 support, fewer human tickets.

6. Executive Virtual Assistant (calendar + travel)

• What it does: Manages executive calendar, triages meeting requests, drafts/update agendas, and coordinates travel bookings.
• How it acts: Connects to calendar, email, travel booking APIs, and corporate policy engine for approvals.
• Example dialog: User asks “Find a 60‑minute window next week with the leadership team.” AI proposes three slots, auto-invites participants, creates an agenda draft, and files travel approval.
• Benefits: Saves executive time, prevents scheduling conflicts, enforces travel policy.

7. Legal Contract Reviewer (first pass)

• What it does: Scans incoming contracts, extracts key clauses (IP, confidentiality, termination), highlights risky language, and proposes standard clause edits for lawyer review.
• How it acts: Contract NLP + clause library + redline generation; assigns risk score and recommended reviewer.
• Example: Supplier contract uploaded -> AI flags nonstandard indemnity and suggests bringing to legal for negotiation; creates redlined version.
• Benefits: Faster review cycles, legal team focuses on high‑risk items.

8. Marketing Content Producer + Distribution

• What it does: Generates blog outlines, social posts, ad copy, A/B variants; pulls product data, schedules posts, and measures engagement.
• How it acts: LLM + brand style guide + CMS/social APIs + analytics feedback loop for performance-based optimization.
• Example: Marketer requests 3 LinkedIn post drafts for product launch; AI creates variants, schedules them, monitors CTR, and iterates copy based on performance.
• Benefits: Faster content production, consistent brand voice, iterative optimization.

9. Procurement / Sourcing Agent

• What it does: Monitors supplier quotes, requests bids, evaluates based on price/lead time/scorecard, creates purchase orders and tracks deliveries.
• How it acts: Integrates with supplier portals, ERP, and scoring models; automates low-risk orders.
• Example: Stock level hits reorder -> AI sources three approved vendors, compares quotes, issues PO to preferred vendor, and updates inventory.
• Benefits: Reduced stockouts, lower purchase prices, process standardization.

10. Manufacturing Operations Control Tower

• What it does: Monitors production KPIs, predicts bottlenecks via time‑series models, issues work order adjustments, and dispatches maintenance.
• How it acts: Ingests IoT/SCADA data + MES/ERP; recommends schedule shifts or triggers automated control actions under guardrails.
• Example: AI detects rising defect rate on a line, reduces speed, notifies operators, and schedules a maintenance check automatically.
• Benefits: Fewer defects, higher throughput, predictive maintenance.

11. Business Intelligence / Data Analyst Assistant

• What it does: Answers natural‑language queries on business metrics, generates charts, creates recurring reports and anomaly alerts.
• How it acts: Connects to data warehouse, runs SQL or no-code queries, visualizes results, explains trends in plain language.
• Example: “Show last quarter’s revenue by region and call out anomalies.” AI returns a chart, highlights an outlier, and suggests investigation steps.
• Benefits: Faster insight generation, democratized analytics.

12. Field Service Assistant for Technicians

• What it does: Provides step‑by‑step troubleshooting guidance, parts lookup, on-site documentation, and route optimization.
• How it acts: Mobile app with AR/manual access + parts inventory + scheduling; offline capability for remote locations.
• Example: Technician scans machine QR -> AI shows error codes, provides probable fixes, orders needed part if unavailable, and captures completion report.
• Benefits: Higher first‑time fix rate, reduced return visits.

Operational controls and practical design patterns

• Access & data: These agents need the right scoped access (least privilege) to CRMs/ERPs/tickets; sensitive data must be masked.
• Handoff & escalation: Define clear triggers (confidence threshold, exception types) to route to humans.
• Audit & explainability: Maintain logs, confidence scores, and human‑readable rationale for decisions.
• Monitoring & KPIs: Track automation rate, time saved, error/exception rate, customer satisfaction, compliance incidents.
• Deployment models: “Co‑pilot” (assistive, human-in-loop), “Autonomous under guardrails” (automates repetitive low-risk tasks), or “Orchestrator” (manages workflows across multiple systems).

Short example transcripts (two quick samples)

A) Customer support (chat)

• Customer: “I never received order #12345.”
• AI: “I see order #12345 shipped on Aug 29 and shows 'in transit'. I can: (A) reship, (B) refund, or (C) file a carrier claim. Which do you prefer?”
• Customer: “Reship please.”
• AI: creates reship order, charges shipping, emails confirmation, updates ticket, and logs action.

B) Sales outreach (email)

• AI draft to prospect: “Hi Maya — congrats on Acme’s Series B last week. We helped [similar company] reduce onboarding time by 40%. Do you have 20 minutes next Wednesday to discuss?”
• AI tracks replies, and when prospect responds “Yes,” it books a time and sends a pre-call brief to the AE.

If you want, I can convert any of these into a ready-to-run workflow blueprint (data sources, API endpoints, prompts, escalation rules) or produce sample prompts/templates for a chosen role.