AI agent
Definition
An AI agent is an AI system that does not just answer but acts autonomously: it plans steps, invokes tools and pursues goals across multiple interactions. Chat agents, voice agents and autonomous workflows (e.g. built with LangGraph or n8n) are agents - their shared lever into the real world is tool calls.
The ability to act makes agents useful - and risky. An agent that can issue refunds can also issue wrong refunds. That is why frameworks like the EU AI Act require effective human oversight where AI systems make consequential decisions.
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