Claygent is Clay's AI agent for web research. Used well, it produces research no static provider offers; used casually, it burns budget on unverifiable output.
Cost model first
Clay offers two AI pricing modes: fixed-price (most models, flat credits per task — classification, short summaries, simple lookups) and variable (token-priced frontier models for multi-step synthesis). Choose fixed-price unless a task genuinely needs deep research; a fixed-price pass over 10,000 rows is predictable, a token-priced one is not.
Prompt design that survives scale
- Structured output. Ask for a specific format (JSON with named fields) so downstream columns can parse results deterministically.
- Scope the task. One question per column. Multi-part prompts produce partial answers and re-runs.
- Say what to do when the answer is not findable. An explicit "return NOT_FOUND" convention beats confident hallucination.
Verification is part of the workflow
For decisions that matter, add verification: a second source for key facts, a sampling review by a human, or cross-check columns. Rate the error rate on a 50-row sample before trusting a run.
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