People Mean Very Different Things When They Say "AI Agents"
vitmalina · reddit · 2026-07-19
The author argues that the phrase "I'm building AI agents" has become severely over-generalized. Different people might be referring to entirely different systems—ranging from custom GPTs, Claude Projects, and n8n/Zapier workflows to LangChain/CrewAI setups, all the way to full-fledged agentic applications equipped with tools, memory, state, retries, permissions, and orchestration layers.
He believes the industry currently lacks precise terminology and suggests categorizing these systems into:
- low-code agent
- workflow agent
- API-based agent
- tool-using agent
- agentic application
The core point is that while everyone uses the same buzzword, they are rarely discussing the same architecture or level of engineering complexity.
More from coding & agent
- TRL adds Score Centering, a simple fix for RLHF training instability — lvwerra · 2026-10-27
- Precompute golden answers and match at runtime for exact wording control — colinmcnamara · 2026-10-27
- Dev argues there's still alpha in working with your coding agent interactively — alex_frantic · 2026-10-27
- Researchers launch AMA on patterns for safer AI agents used by citizen developers — Loose_Rip359 · 2026-10-27
- Gradio Adds In-Chat Human-in-the-Loop So ML Intern Pauses Before Training — Gradio · 2026-10-27
- Building Halo Infinite Forge maps with local LLMs, DCjson and Blender MCP — swagonflyyyy · 2026-10-27