A AI agent is a standalone software capable of perceiving its environment - via sensors or interfaces (text, images, data) - processing this information, making decisions based on predefined objectives and acting to achieve them.
Autonomy is a key point: the agent operates without constant direct human intervention once it has been launched.
In other words, it is a programme which, once set with a mission or objective, can choose by itself the most appropriate actions to achieve it. To do this, it often relies onmachine learning and natural language processing.
👉 Examples of AI agents
AI agents are omnipresent in our daily lives, often invisibly.
Here are a few concrete examples:
- Virtual assistants : Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, etc. These are conversational AI agents that interact with users via voice or text to answer questions, execute commands, provide information, control devices, and so on.
- Chatbots customer service : used by companies to answer customer questions on websites, email applications, etc. They automate first-level customer support.
- Recommendation systems : used by Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Spotify... to suggest films, products, videos, music... based on the user's preferences and history.
- Autonomous cars : complex AI agents that perceive the road environment via sensors (cameras, LiDAR, radar) and make driving decisions (steering, acceleration, braking) to navigate autonomously.
- Advanced industrial robots : used in factories to carry out complex assembly, welding, painting, handling and other tasks. Some modern robots are capable of adapting to new situations and learning new tasks.
To find out more, read the article : Robot vs cobot: what are the differences?
- Spam filters : its AI agents, which analyse the content of e-mails to identify and filter spam.
- Trading software : used in financial markets to make automated decisions to buy and sell shares and other financial assets, based on complex algorithms and real-time market data.
