OK, when I ran the Machine missions chapter 3.3, a few agents offered their assistance to eliminate a few commandos. I just had to click "follow me" and they killed the hostiles with a few shots.
The same was actually in the Machine missions 4.1., although I somehow had the impression the agent's shots weren't that powerful -- just an impression, nothing of value.
Now, in the Zion criticals, there was the same case, but the level 60 agent took ages to kill the level 32 exiles he interlocked -- just as if he was at my level, and not 30 levels higher.
Can others confirm this, or was it just a bug in my particular case?