What is an "Agent" and Do I Actually Need One?

What is an "Agent" and Do I Actually Need One? If you have been paying attention to AI news lately, you have probably noticed that everyone is talking about agents. Every product announcement mentions them. Every conference keynote promises them. The word shows up so often that it has started to lose meaning, which is a problem when you are trying to figure out whether this is something you should actually care about. Here is the short version: an agent is AI that can do things,