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Agents & automationLast reviewed
AI Agent
An AI agent is a system that pursues goals with a language model: it plans steps, uses tools such as search, databases or email, and checks intermediate results.
Also known as: Agent · Agentic AI
How it works
An agent consists of a language model, tools and a loop. The model plans the next step, calls a tool (search, database, calendar, email), evaluates the result and decides whether to continue or whether it is done. This lets it handle multi-step tasks that a single prompt cannot manage.
A practical example
An agent reads incoming requests, looks up matching information in the internal system, drafts a reply and submits it for approval.
What you should know
- Agents make mistakes: they misunderstand requests or fail on unexpected data. That is why clear limits, logs and approval steps (human-in-the-loop) are needed.
- Fewer permissions are better: give an agent only the tools and rights it needs for the task.
- Agents often deliver the most with frequent small interruptions in everyday work, not with the most elaborate tasks.
Matching tools