Glossary
What is an AI agent?
An AI you give a goal rather than step-by-step instructions. It works in a think-act-observe loop — using tools and reacting to each result — until the goal is reached.
With a normal chatbot you give steps; with an agent you give a goal and let it work out the steps. It runs a loop — think, act, observe — calling tools (search the web, run code, open an app), reading each result, and deciding the next move, until the goal is met or it gives up.
↻repeat until the goal is met
That autonomy is the power and the risk: an agent can chain many steps unsupervised, so a wrong turn compounds. Good agent products keep a human in the loop for anything costly, and the whole run still has to fit the model's context window.
Related terms
Appears in these lessons
See it live
Watch an agent work the loop
See think-act-observe in action across real tools — free in the app.