What Is an AI Agent?
0In this episode of AI + a16z, a16z Infra partners Guido Appenzeller, Matt Bornstein, and Yoko Li discuss and debate one of the tech industry's buzziest words right now: AI agents. The trio digs into the topic from a number of angles, including:
Whether a uniform definition of agent actually exists
How to distinguish between agents, LLMs, and functions
How to think about pricing agents
Whether agents can actually replace humans, and
The effects of data siloes on agents that can access the web.
They don't claim to have all the answers, but they raise many questions and insights that should interest anybody building, buying, and even marketing AI agents.
00:00:39 - How do we define “AI agents”
00:04:40 - Degrees of agentic behavior
00:09:34 - Can agents really replace humans?
00:15:32 - Is it agentic behavior or a software function?
00:18:46 - How should we price AI agents?
00:22:54 - Identifying true value
00:25:59 - Where do agent capabilities live?
00:29:40 - Agents vs. a hostile web
00:34:04 - What does success look like?