AI Agent
An AI system that autonomously plans and executes multi-step tasks using tools and decision-making loops.
AI-generated
An AI agent goes beyond answering questions. Given a goal, it plans the steps needed, executes them using tools (file editing, web browsing, code execution), observes the results, and adjusts its approach. Claude Code and similar tools are AI agents: you describe what you want built, and they execute the entire process.
Agents represent the transition from AI as a question-answering tool to AI as a task-completing collaborator. Instead of asking "how do I do X?" and doing it yourself, you tell the agent to do X and review the result. This is the most productive way to use AI for complex, multi-step work.
Lilian Weng: "LLM Powered Autonomous Agents" - https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-06-23-agent/
LangChain: Introduction to agents - https://www.langchain.com/agents