The roles the agent may perform in a computer-based training program or in educational software range from being the "guide on the side" to being a "sage on the stage". The two extremes show the degree of control the agent will have over the interaction between user and instructional materials.

At the same time, the roles of the agent may be on the "pedagogical" side, meaning the agent will have an important role in the cognitive processes the user engages in, or those roles may be on the "assistant" side, which means the agent will help users interact with the program, but the learning components themselves will not be delivered by the agent.

A number of roles have been identified by researchers in the field. Some of those roles are:

• desktop/personal assistants
• presenters of information
• virtual reality environment assistants
• learning companions
• Mentors/tutors
• pedagogical agents
• agents as resource

For example, the "Clippit" desktop assistant that comes with the Windows 98 operating system and subsequent versions (ME, 2000, XP) is an example of a personal assistant, that was originally designed to help users perform rutinary tasks more easily. In spite of the negative effect this assistant has created in a vast majority of users, the desktop assistant role per se is an attempt to target less computer-savvy users that may find the interaction with the animated agent more natural than the interaction with buttons, drop-down menues and pop-up boxes.

Presenters of information are found in tourist oriented websites and online encyclopedias, where agents read information from the screen, or present information in an oral fashion.

Learning companions, tutors, and pedagogical agents, enter the realm of the pedagogical uses of animated agents. Learning companions are agents designed to "learn" together with the users, so that progress through the program is not seen as a "lonely" task, but one that is done with the company of the agent. Tutors provide meaningful and constructive feedback to the user, each time his/her performance drops below a pre-specified standard. Pedagogical agents take up a pedagogical approach (instructivist, constructivist, Socratic, etc.) to interact with the user and make him/her engage in a number of cognitive processes that will result in learning.

Deciding what role the agent will have in a specific computer-based training or educational software is essential to determine a successful implementation of the agent technology. An agent performing an inapropriate role will result in user frustration and rejection of the agent and, eventually, the program itself.