An AI agent is a system that pursues a goal by taking actions, not just producing text: it reads an email, looks up the customer in the CRM, drafts the quote, and files the record. The model provides the judgement; connected tools provide the hands. Agents work in steps, checking results and deciding what to do next.
The engineering that matters is the guardrails: what the agent may touch, what needs approval, what gets logged. Our guide to AI agents for small business covers where they pay off first.