1、What is an AI agent?AI agents are the tools we use to interact with AI.They can automate and perform complex tasks,such as natural language processing,that would normally require humans.March 2025McKinsey ExplainersAn AI agent is a software component that has the agency to act on behalf of a user or

2、 a system to perform tasks.Users can organize agents into systems that can orchestrate complex workflows,coordinate activities among multiple agents,apply logicto thorny problems,and evaluate answers to user queries.If youve ever interacted with a customer service chatbot or asked a gen AI model to

3、write you a sonnet,then youre likely already familiar with a rudimentary version of AI agents.And if youve noticed improvements in gen AIs performance since it went mainstream with ChatGPT,youre not wrong.While versions of AI agents have existed for years,the natural-language-processing capabilities

4、 of todays gen AI models have unleashed a host of new possibilities,which are enabling systems of agents to plan,collaborate,and complete tasksand even learn to improve their own performance.As agents become more accurate,companies can increasingly use them to automate organizational processes and h

5、elp make employees day-to-day work more efficient.“The development of gen AI has been extremely fast,”says McKinsey Senior Partner Lari Hmlinen.“Today,the joint human-plus-machine outcome can generate great quality and great productivity.”Recent developments in short-and long-term memory structuresh

6、ave enabled these agents to better personalize interactions with both external and internal users,which means the agents are quickly getting better at whatever they are asked to do.Looking ahead,theyre about to get even better;put simply,AI agents are moving from thought to action.In the past 18 mon