Since the agents are not taskable, they also do not exhibit the more typical, directed behaviors of other systems. However, this does not imply that subsumption agents do not behave purposely but, given the autonomous nature of their design, all goals are implicit in the design of the behaviors during agent construction.
Several real-world tasks have been posited for subsumption agents. They range from the arcane (having robots enter offices and steal empty cola cans), to the useful (janitorial duties), to the ambitious (planetary exploration).