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.
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