# What is an AI agent?

> An AI agent is software that uses a language model to carry out a job step by step, using the tools a person would use, inside rules a person agreed. A chatbot answers a question. An agent does the work and reports what it did.

**AI agent:** Software that uses a language model to carry out a job step by step, using the tools a person would use, inside rules a person agreed.

## How an agent differs from a chatbot

A chatbot replies to what you type and stops. An agent is given a job, such as sorting the morning inbox, and works through it: it reads, decides, acts in your tools and reports what it did.

That is why an agent needs access to your tools and a set of rules, and why a person stays in charge of anything unusual. See [human in the loop](https://agenticengineeringconsulting.com/wiki/human-in-the-loop).

## What an agent needs to work

- A job with rules you can write down.
- Access to the tools the job runs in: an inbox, a calendar, a CRM, a booking system or a phone line.
- A person who checks anything unusual.
- A record of what it did, so the work can be audited.

## Examples from our delivery record

- An inbox agent for a hospitality group near Bruges cleared a backlog of about 40 booking emails in one day.
- An agent team inside a law firm's own Slack runs four scheduled jobs, including an inbox watch every 30 minutes.
- An IT consultancy in Brussels has six agents live from the first phase.

## What an agent is not

An agent is not a website chatbot and not a decision-maker nobody checks. We build agents that a person stays in charge of.

## Where to go next

The three ways we put agents to work are the [Personal CEO Agent](https://agenticengineeringconsulting.com/wiki/personal-ceo-agent), [job automation agents](https://agenticengineeringconsulting.com/wiki/job-automation-agents) and the [Agent Enterprise](https://agenticengineeringconsulting.com/wiki/agent-enterprise).

## Related

- [What does human in the loop mean for AI agents?](https://agenticengineeringconsulting.com/wiki/human-in-the-loop)
- [What are job automation agents?](https://agenticengineeringconsulting.com/wiki/job-automation-agents)
- [How we build an AI agent in 30 days](https://agenticengineeringconsulting.com/wiki/how-we-build-agents)
- [AI agents: questions buyers ask](https://agenticengineeringconsulting.com/wiki/ai-agent-faq)

## Next step

- Apply: https://agenticengineeringconsulting.com/apply
- Free AI audit: https://agenticengineeringconsulting.com/audit
- Book a brief: https://calendar.app.google/sdYkXF3ny2kvbvp39
- Email: henryvantieghem@agenticengineeringconsultingllc.com

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