Building AI agents is harder than demos suggest: integration and messy data are the real problem
DoubtAdditional745 · reddit · 2026-10-10
A developer argues real-world agent building diverges sharply from online demos: the AI itself isn't the biggest problem—integrating with existing software, messy data, and real business processes is. Even small mistakes can cause issues, so human oversight remains essential.
His lessons: trying to automate everything at once rarely works—start with one simple task, see how it goes, and build from there. Cost and ongoing maintenance, he adds, are factors people rarely mention.
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