An AI agent is a software system that uses an AI model to perceive context, decide, and act toward a goal — calling tools, querying data, and completing multi-step tasks on a user’s behalf.
How it works
An agent combines four parts: a model that reasons, a set of tools it can call (search, APIs, databases, code), a memory of what it has done, and a loop that lets it plan, act, observe the outcome, and try again. Multiple specialised agents can also collaborate, each handling part of a larger task.
Why it matters for enterprise AI
Agents let enterprises automate work that used to require a person switching between systems — reconciling invoices, triaging tickets, preparing analyses. The hard part is not the model but the context and controls around it: an agent is only as trustworthy as the data it is grounded in and the governance that bounds its actions.
