What is an AI Agent? From Concept to Practice

Published on October 15, 2025

In today's rapidly evolving AI landscape, AI Agents have become one of the hottest topics in technology. But what exactly is an AI Agent? How does it differ from traditional AI models?

Definition of AI Agent

An AI Agent is an intelligent system capable of perceiving its environment, making decisions, and taking actions to achieve specific goals. Unlike traditional AI models that passively respond to inputs, Agents possess autonomy and proactivity, continuously adjusting their behavior based on environmental feedback.

Core Characteristics

Autonomy: Agents can operate independently without direct human intervention, making decisions based on predefined objectives.

Reactivity: Ability to perceive environmental changes and respond promptly.

Proactivity: Not just responding passively, but actively taking initiative to achieve goals.

Social Ability: Can interact and collaborate with other Agents or humans.

LLM-Based Agents

The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) has provided a powerful foundation for building more intelligent Agents. LLM Agents leverage the reasoning capabilities of language models as their "brain," combined with tool calling, memory systems, and planning abilities to handle complex real-world tasks.

For example, a customer service Agent can understand user questions, query databases, call APIs to retrieve information, and generate personalized responses, all without human intervention.

Practical Applications

AI Agents have already demonstrated tremendous potential across multiple domains: intelligent customer service, code assistants, data analysis, automated operations, personal assistants, and more. As the technology matures, Agents will play increasingly important roles in even more scenarios.

In the next article, we'll dive deep into how to design and build an LLM Agent system.

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