AI steps with tools, knowledge and approvals

A plain AI step only reads the text you give it. An AI step with tools can also act: look up a customer in the CRM, search your documents, read a web page, create a task. The model decides which tools to use and how often, then returns its output fields. This is what people mean by an AI agent: an AI that takes several steps on its own to reach a goal.

Background: Zapier used to sell agents as a separate product, Zapier Agents. In October 2026 it moved those abilities into the AI by Zapier step, so agent-style work now lives inside normal Zaps with triggers, filters, paths and Zap history. Old agents show a migration banner.

Under Settings, Tools and Knowledge offers:

• App actions: any Zapier action. For each of its fields you choose: a fixed or mapped value, let the AI pick from a list, let the AI decide from the prompt, or leave the field out. Fix whatever you can, so the AI has fewer chances to get it wrong.
• Knowledge sources: documents or data (for example a table or a Drive folder) the step can search.
• Browse the web: search and visit websites.

Safety controls:

• Require approval before running, per tool. The run pauses, you get an email and a pending approval, and you approve or reject after seeing the values. Turn it on for anything that creates, changes, deletes or sends.
• A task limit per run (75 by default) pauses runaway runs.

Tools need the stronger model tiers or your own AI key, and task use varies per run, so check Zap history. Preview shows which tools were used.