Stop Calling Everything an AI Agent: Sometimes It's Just a Shard
Plastic_Session5621 · reddit · 2026-09-15
A Reddit rant against AI industry terminology inflation is resonating: any chatbot with one tool call, a workflow with three API requests, or even a scheduled script now gets branded an "agent" with implied autonomy. The author argues a better mental model is a "shard" — a bounded piece of functionality in a larger system doing one job, without pretending to have strategic initiative. Terminology shapes perception: calling every subsystem an agent smuggles agency into the noun, inflating what is often just a constrained tool loop. Invoking a Scotty-style rule: show me the prompt, the permissions, the tool access, the loop, and the error handling before talking about autonomy. Otherwise, "you don't have an agent — you have a function with a marketing department."
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