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What Is an AI Agent?
An AI agent is a system that perceives context, plans actions, and executes tasks with tool access — not just a chat interface. The difference between a chatbot and an agent is orchestration, memory, and accountability.
Common Agent Patterns
Most production agents fall into one of these architectures:
- Reactive assistants — single-turn Q&A with retrieval (RAG)
- Workflow agents — multi-step tasks with human approval gates
- Autonomous operators — scheduled jobs with guardrails and audit logs
Production Checklist
Before shipping agents: define failure modes, add rate limits, log every tool call, and design human override paths. Agents without observability become liability quickly.