Intelligent Agents are automated notifications can that be scheduled to run or be run manually to track activity within a course. If you find yourself with a class of larger enrollment than you're used to or multiple classes in the same term, intelligent agents can help, especially in the early weeks of the term, to keep you apprised of student access and activity. They can also be used to notify you when work has been submitted or completed throughout the length of a course.
You can automate messages to students, or you can use the tool to set reminders for yourself to reach out. If you like the convenience of automated messaging directly to students, remember to personalize your communication or the course material in other ways, as well, to keep that sense of community and connection between you and the learner.
For video tutorials on the basics of creating and editing Intelligent Agents, view this playlist by Brightspace Tutorials on YouTube.
To set up Intelligent Agents in a course, you can find them by clicking on "Edit Course" in the Navigation Bar.
Create a 
intelligent agent.
Give it a name and decide on criteria.
Determine who and what you want the agent to track. This can be activity in the D2L course or completion of certain items using Release Conditions.
Use the "Actions" section to determine how it will behave and who it will email. Again, at Greenville, we recommend that you craft and send individual emails. This tool is better suited to help remind you to whom and when to send them.
If you have a TA, you could add their email as a recipient, particularly if you need them to take care of something in the course or confirm grades are posted after students have completed an activity.
Use the "Scheduling" section to decide if you want the agent to run on a certain date and whether to repeat the action or if you want to run it manually.
Save and Close the agent.
This is what an established agent looks like in a course, with the drop down menu showing that you can edit it, have a practice run, or manually run the agent:
This is a view of an agent that reports to me when students haven't completed Online Agreement & Readiness Quizzes.
In the message body, you see replace strings that include the course code and the student's name.
D2L has built in help throughout the process. You can see the blue links under most fields and choices that explain the options and when you might want to use specific options.