What is an AI agent — and how is it different from a chatbot?

A chatbot answers. An agent gets things done. Here’s the difference, and why it matters for your business.

A chatbot waits for a question and replies with text. Useful, but limited: it doesn’t do anything with the answer. An AI agent goes further. It understands a goal, decides the steps needed to reach it, and uses your tools to carry them out — reading an email, checking your stock system, drafting a reply and filing the request in your CRM.

Think of it as a digital colleague with a clearly defined job. You decide what it can access and what it is allowed to do. Routine cases it handles alone; anything unusual or sensitive it passes to a person.

That last part is the key. A well-built agent doesn’t replace your team’s judgement — it removes the repetitive work around it, so people spend their time on the decisions that actually need them.