Agent

An agent is not just a chatbot with a fancy label. The useful distinction is agency: the system chooses a sequence of steps, often calling tools, and keeps going until a goal is met or it gives up.

A lot of products sold as “agents” are still single-turn assistants with a toolbar. The word got stretched. When the label matters, ask: who decides the next action, and can it do something in the world besides emit text?

Agents inherit every weakness of the model underneath: bad context, fuzzy goals, and tools that lie or fail. The interesting engineering is usually the harness around the model, not the slogan on the slide.