Glossary · Industry term
AI agent
Also known as: agent, autonomous agent
An LLM-driven program that plans, decides, and executes tool calls toward a stated goal. Differs from an AI assistant (single-turn helper) by carrying state across steps and acting on the world via tools.
How this publication uses it
Vendor marketing routinely calls a polished chat UI an 'agent'. For procurement, the only useful definition is operational: the system makes tool calls without per-step approval. If a human approves every step, it's an assistant; if it doesn't, it's an agent — and the governance and safety surface area are different.
Articles that analyse this term
Primary sources
- Anthropic. Building effective agents