Chatbots answer questions. AI agents take action. Here's the difference and when you need each.
Chatbot vs Agent
| Capability | Chatbot | AI Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Responds to prompts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Uses tools | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi-step workflows | ✗ | ✓ |
| Works toward goals | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self-corrects | ✗ | ✓ |
| Acts autonomously | ✗ | ✓ |
What Makes AI "Agentic"
Key characteristics:
- Goal-oriented: Works toward objectives, not just answers
- Tool use: Can send emails, update CRM, search web
- Planning: Breaks goals into steps
- Memory: Remembers context across interactions
- Self-correction: Adjusts when actions fail
Agent Example: Lead Handling
Chatbot:
- Receives: "I'm interested in your service"
- Responds: "Great! Here's more info..."
- Done: Conversation ends
Agent:
- Receives: "I'm interested"
- Qualifies: Asks questions, scores lead
- Personalizes email based on answers
- Creates lead in CRM
- Schedules follow-up
- Prepares briefing if meeting booked
Agent Capabilities
| Tool | What Agent Can Do |
|---|---|
| Send, reply, draft | |
| Calendar | Schedule, reschedule, remind |
| CRM | Create, update, query records |
| Database | Read, write customer data |
| Web search | Research, verify information |
| Documents | Read, generate, summarize |
When You Need an Agent
Agents for these scenarios:
- "Handle this": Complete a task end-to-end
- Multi-step: More than one action needed
- Tool integration: Needs to send/write/update
- Ongoing work: Monitoring, following up
- Complex decisions: Evaluate conditions, choose path
When a Chatbot Is Enough
Chatbots work fine for:
- Simple Q&A
- Information lookup
- FAQ answering
- Triage before human
- Basic routing
Agent Architecture
How agents are built:
- Reasoning model: Plans and decides
- Tools: Functions agent can call
- Memory: Short and long-term context
- Orchestrator: Manages workflow
- Safety: Guards, human approval
Agent Risks
Autonomous action = more risk:
- Incorrect actions: Agent does wrong thing
- Cascading errors: One mistake leads to more
- Over-reaching: Agent exceeds intended scope
- Unpredictable: Hard to know what it will do
Mitigation: Human approvals, clear boundaries, monitoring
Greene Solutions Approach
We design agents with safety:
- Human-in-the-loop for sensitive actions
- Clear permission boundaries
- Full audit logging
- Easy shutdown mechanisms
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