The English definition of an agent in software is "In computer science, a software agent is a piece of software that acts for a user or other program in a relationship of agency. Such "action on behalf of" implies the authority to decide which (and if) action is appropriate. The idea is that agents are not strictly invoked for a task, but activate themselves."

It is an autonomous task that usually runs "as if it is a user". In Dutch I have seen this pretty much always referred to as "agent" - pronounced as in English (and not as in "a cop") - In written text this may not be entirely clear but this is the term I would know this kind of process by.