The New Agent Mode in ChatGPT: What It Means for Teachers and Materials Writers
OpenAI has recently introduced Agent Mode in ChatGPT. For many educators and course designers, this is an exciting development because it takes us beyond simple prompting. Instead of generating content one request at a time, we can now build intelligent assistants that carry out tasks, remember information, and adapt to specific goals.
So what exactly is Agent Mode, and how can teachers and materials writers make use of it?
What Is Agent Mode?
Agent Mode allows you to set up ChatGPT to act as a specialized helper. Instead of typing in new instructions every time, you create a set of roles, behaviors, and tools for the AI to follow. In other words, it becomes more like a teaching assistant or research partner than just a text generator.
You can decide:
What the agent’s job is (e.g., “help me design vocabulary practice activities for B1 learners”).
What resources it can use (such as uploaded lesson plans, textbooks, or standards like the CEFR or Global Scale of English).
How it should respond (concise, formal, student-friendly, etc.).
Once set up, the agent remembers your preferences and can continue building with you over time.
Why Teachers Should Care
For classroom teachers, Agent Mode has the potential to save preparation time and add consistency to your materials. Instead of re-explaining your teaching context every time you log in, you can create an agent that already knows your students’ level, the skills you are focusing on, and the types of activities you prefer.
Imagine having an agent that:
Generates weekly reading comprehension passages tailored to your students’ interests.
Suggests discussion questions at varying levels of difficulty.
Keeps track of which grammar points you’ve already covered and proposes logical next steps.
This is not about replacing teachers—it’s about extending your reach and freeing up time for the parts of teaching that need your personal touch.
Why Materials Writers Should Care
If you are writing curriculum or developing resources, Agent Mode helps you maintain a consistent workflow. Instead of reinventing the wheel for every project, you can train an agent to follow your house style or teaching framework.
An agent could:
Align tasks with learning outcomes from a given standard.
Analyze authentic texts and suggest vocabulary lists with full language analysis.
Provide alternative activity types for faster and slower learners.
Track which topics have been included across units, preventing repetition and ensuring balance.
In short, it acts as a co-writer who never gets tired of following your specifications.
Practical First Steps
Define the role. Be clear about what you want your agent to do. For example: “This agent helps me design communicative ESL lessons for adult learners.”
Upload your resources. Give the agent your syllabus, previous lesson plans, or assessment rubrics. The more context it has, the more useful its output.
Decide on workflows. Will you use it for brainstorming, drafting, editing, or all of the above?
Test and refine. Just like with students, it may take a little practice before the agent learns your exact style.
Final Thoughts
Agent Mode is still new, but it’s a clear step toward a future where teachers and writers work alongside AI in more personalized, sustainable ways. The key is to see it not as a shortcut but as a partner—a tool that supports your creativity and helps you keep your focus on what really matters: engaging, effective learning.