Agent
AI agent, autonomous agent, agentic
In one sentence
A system that picks its own next step and keeps calling tools in a loop until the goal is met, rather than following a chain a developer fixed in advance.
Why it matters
There is no industry-agreed test for "agent," which is how a five-line script with one API call and a genuinely autonomous multi-day coding run end up sold with the same word. The dividing line most engineers actually use is who picks the next step: a fixed chain is a workflow, deciding for itself is an agent. Plenty of shipped products stretch the word well past that.
Sources
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