What is an AI agent?
An AI agent is a software program that perceives its environment, decides what to do, and takes action toward a goal with little or no human input. Unlike a chatbot that only answers, an agent can actually carry out the steps on its own.
Key takeaways
A software program that perceives its environment, decides what to do, and takes action toward a goal.
An agent can actually carry out the steps on its own.
It observes a situation, reasons about the options, acts, then checks the result.
How an agent works
A typical agent runs a simple loop. It observes a situation, reasons about the options, acts, then checks the result before deciding what to do next. Most modern agents use a large language model for the reasoning part, with extra tooling added on for memory and for taking action. Anthropic’s engineering team describes agents the same way, as LLMs using tools based on environmental feedback in a loop.
Figure 1. The agent loop
Restates this article: a typical agent observes a situation, reasons about the options, acts, then checks the result before deciding what to do next. The figure shows structure only; nothing in it is measured.
Answering versus doing
Here is the practical difference. A chatbot tells you how to reset a password. An agent logs in, resets it, and confirms the change.
A chatbot
Answers- Responds to messages
- Tells you how to reset a password
An AI agent
Does- Takes actions to complete tasks, often across several tools
- Logs in, resets the password, and confirms the change
Teams that move past experiments and into production usually need agents wired into real systems, which is the kind of AI and machine learning build Sthenos owns end to end.
Related terms
Is an AI agent the same as a chatbot?
No. A chatbot responds to messages. An agent takes actions to complete tasks, often across several tools.
