What Is an Agent

Understand what defines an AI agent: the perceive-decide-act loop, tool use, and autonomy that differentiate agents from scripts and chatbots.

Learn fundamental AI agent concepts through 8 Python examples. Call models, define tools, and observe how agents decide when to use them.

Understand the differences between AI agents, chatbots, assistants, and copilots based on autonomy, tool access, and human involvement.

Discover why "agentic" defines a specific engineering pattern. Learn its five core primitives: loops, tools, state, bounds, and trace.

Learn essential AI agent vocabulary including agent loops, tool calling, grounding, orchestration, and context windows to build robust AI agents.

Learn ten best practices for evaluating if a problem requires an AI agent, script, or copilot. Determine the right solution for your engineering needs.