What Is an AI Agent? (And When Should You Build One)
Every vendor selling software right now claims their product is “agentic.” I’ve seen chatbots with a system prompt called an agent. I’ve seen a scheduled Python script described as autonomous AI. I’ve also shipped actual agents to production — at an insurance company, handling FNOL triage, policy lookup, and claims routing. The gap between what gets marketed as an agent and what you’d actually build is significant.
