  We stress the importance of Wolf-Rayet stars for the understanding of the AGN
phenomenon in galaxies. WR stars provide an unique opportunity to explore from
the ground whether non-thermal nuclear activity and circumnuclear starbursts
are connected. We review the known reported WR signatures observed so far in
AGNs and point out some intrincacies related to the analysis of the spectra,
linked to reddening correction, the origin of the Hbeta line, etc. Finally, we
advocate that integral field spectroscopy is a very promising tool to study
this problem and present preliminary results of a long-term project that have
been obtained at the CFHT in 1998.
