An AI agent understands a goal, plans steps, uses tools, retrieves information, performs actions, checks results, and continues or asks for approval.
An AI agent is a system that uses tools to perform tasks toward a goal. Agentic AI is the broader approach where AI performs multi-step work with planning, tool use, feedback and varying levels of autonomy. Good engineering means using the simplest architecture that solves the problem.
Example: “Check today’s orders, identify delayed orders and prepare a report.”