[NEW] Notion Custom Agents: 6 Business Use Cases NOW Possible

I've had early access to Notion's custom agents for the past couple of months.

And honestly, I can't believe how far we've come with AI.

If you're running a service business and you've been waiting for AI that actually works like a real team member, this is it.

Let me show you what's possible now and how I'm already using it in my business.

What custom agents actually are (and why they're different)

Think about when you hire a new marketing person.

You don't just throw them into the deep end.

You teach them your processes.

How to do content research. How to check your analytics. How to create reports.

Once they learn these processes, they just do them.

You don't need to tell them every week "hey, can you pull the YouTube numbers and make sense of them?"

They know to do it automatically.

That's exactly what custom agents are.

A custom agent is like a teammate inside your Notion workspace.

It's built for one specific job.

And it runs automatically on a schedule or when something specific happens.

Now, this is completely different from the regular Notion AI that we've had.

Those agents are on-demand.

You have to prompt them and tell them what to do every single time.

Custom agents you set up once and forget about them.

They trigger according to the rules you define.

No more babysitting.

Let me walk you through building one so you can see how this actually works.

I wanted to create a monthly report for my YouTube channel.

Since I have all my video data inside Notion already, the agent has access to all of that.

Creating a new agent is straightforward.

You go to the agents area, click plus, and just tell it in plain English what you want.

I said: "I want an agent that goes through my YouTube videos database, checks the views on each video, identifies what's working and what's not, then outputs a report with recommendations for next week."

The setup interface is where things get interesting.

You can set triggers in multiple ways.

By schedule (which is what I used - every Friday at 9am).

By Slack messages or emoji reactions.

When pages get added to databases.

When specific properties change values.

When calendar events happen.

When emails come in.

Basically anything that happens in your workspace can trigger an agent.

The instructions section is where you tell it exactly what to do.

Since my workspace is well-organized, it automatically understood I have a YouTube videos database and wrote instructions like "pull all rows where Saturday is published in the last 90 days, identify winners and losers, analyze what's performing well."

I didn't write any of that.

But here's the crucial part - permissions.

Agents don't magically have access to everything.

You have to specifically give each agent access to the databases and tools it needs.

For my YouTube agent, I gave it access to my videos database (view only) and my reports database (edit access so it can create new reports).

You can also give agents web access so they can research things online.

I connected it to my YouTube reports database and told it to create the report there.

When I ran it for the first time, the results were honestly impressive.

It analyzed four videos, identified the best and worst performers, explained what was working and what wasn't, and gave me specific recommendations for the next week.

All automatically.

No prompting required.

How I'm using custom agents in my business right now

I'm running six different agents in my business already.

Bear in mind, the key to making any of this work is having your processes clearly defined first.

If you don't know your processes, you don't know what to automate.

I was just having this conversation with a client yesterday.

We always start by defining their processes before we automate anything.

First agent: Monthly business review.

This one runs monthly and analyzes everything.

My tasks, goals, finances, clients, marketing materials.

It compares current month versus previous month and sends me a synthesized report.

What's working, what's not, where to focus next.

Since I have all this information structured in Notion, the agent can look at everything and give me insights I might miss.

Second agent: Stalled lead finder.

I have all my leads data in Notion, including when I last spoke with them.

Every Monday, this agent finds leads that have gone cold.

Since I also store meeting transcripts in Notion, it can read what we discussed.

Then it creates follow-up email drafts.

Not sends them, just creates drafts.

I wouldn't want an agent sending emails on my behalf, but creating drafts saves me hours.

This is huge for me because I've always been terrible at following up with potential clients.

Third agent: Meeting task creator.

When I finish a meeting, Notion's transcriber identifies action items.

But they're just checkboxes in the transcript.

This agent automatically creates actual tasks in my task database.

It's triggered by a property update in my meetings database.

So far we don't have a "meeting finished" trigger, so I use a button.

When I press the button, it checks a "generate tasks" checkbox, which triggers the agent.

Fourth agent: Lead researcher.

Whenever someone books a call with me, they go into my leads database.

Before, I'd manually research their company before our call.

Now the agent does it automatically.

It takes their email domain, searches their website, figures out what they do, and identifies potential system issues they might have.

By the time we get on the call, I already understand their business.

Fifth agent: Client communication tracker.

I manage client communications through Slack and want to update each client every couple days.

Before this agent, I'd forget.

Now it runs daily, checks all my Slack messages and recent emails with clients, and tells me who I need to talk to.

It updates each client's project with what we discussed and when.

I have conditional formatting so if it's been over two days, their name turns red.

Sixth agent: YouTube video researcher.

This is my favorite.

When I have a video idea in Notion, this agent goes to YouTube, finds similar videos, and researches what I should include.

It gives me a head start on content planning.

The results from all six agents have been significant.

I'm spending less time on administrative work and more time on actual client delivery.

Bear in mind, I've been testing this for months with a very organized Notion workspace.

The better organized your information is, the better results you'll get.

What this means for your business moving forward

Let's be honest about what this actually is.

This isn't magic.

It's not going to fix a broken business or replace good systems.

But if you have your processes defined and your information organized, custom agents can automate a lot of repetitive work.

The key requirements are pretty straightforward.

You need a Notion workspace with your business data structured properly.

You need clear processes that you can explain to someone else.

And you need to be realistic about what agents can and can't do.

Each agent can connect to multiple databases, trigger on schedules or events, and even connect to external tools through MCP servers.

Speaking of MCP servers, this is huge.

You can connect Notion agents to basically anything on the internet now.

I've already connected them to Make.com to run automations.

The possibilities are pretty endless.

But remember what I said about having processes defined first.

Don't build agents just because you can.

Build them to solve specific problems you're already handling manually.

Start with one simple agent.

Maybe a weekly report or a lead follow-up system.

Get that working smoothly before you build more.

The sharing and permissions system is well thought out too.

You can share agents with specific team members.

Set permissions for who can use them versus who can edit them.

But be careful - if you give someone access to an agent, they can get information from databases they don't normally have access to.

My prediction is that every service business will be running custom agents within two years.

The ones that figure this out first will have a significant advantage.

They'll be able to deliver better client service with less manual work.

But this is not all rainbows.

You need good systems first.

You need organized data.

And you need to be willing to spend time setting things up properly.

If your Notion workspace is a mess, clean that up before you start building agents.

The businesses that will benefit most are the ones that already have some systemization.

If you're completely disorganized, start there.

If you have decent systems but they require a lot of manual work, custom agents could be perfect for you.

Ready to see where your business stands with AI and automation? Take our AI Readiness Scorecard to find out.