First, “agent” is still a fuzzy word. Think of it as a spectrum.
Many products flashing the label are marketing-led: the term excites users, helps founders raise faster, and makes the pitch sound futuristic, even when the tech under the hood is basic.
At a broad level, there are two buckets -
– Copilot: You stay in the loop, get instant feedback, steer every step.
– Agent: The system runs its own loops, surfaces only when it’s stuck or finished.
To earn the agent badge, a product must clear three hurdles -
-> Planning: break a goal into its own step-by-step plan.
-> Tool use: call external APIs, databases, or scripts—not just remix text.
-> Self-stop: recognise when the task is complete without human nudges.
That creates an “agentic ladder” -
1. Copilot — needs you every turn.
2. Task Agent — fire-and-forget; asks when it hits a wall.
3. Continuous Agent — persists, learns, reruns itself; still science fiction today.
Bottom line: call it an agent, a copilot, or a smart macro - users don’t care.
They’ll stick with whatever solves their problem in the smoothest way possible.
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