The 2025 Guide to AI Agents

Your one-stop resource for gaining in-depth knowledge and hands-on applications of AI agents.

In this comprehensive guide, you will find a collection of AI agent-related content such as educational explainers, hands-on tutorials, podcast episodes and much more.

An artificial intelligence (AI) agent refers to a system or program that is capable of autonomously performing tasks on behalf of a user or another system by designing its workflow and utilizing available tools. AI agents can encompass a wide range of functionalities beyond natural language processing including decision-making, problem-solving, interacting with external environments and executing actions.

illustration of a person with multiple tasks for customer service

Take the first step in your learning journey

Get started with AI Agents with our comprehensive overview.

Get started

Overview

As the first step in your journey, explore introductory AI agent explainers to obtain a high-level understanding.

Learn more

          

Components

AI agents rely on a set of interconnected components that enable them to perceive their environment, process information, decide, collaborate, take meaningful actions and learn from their experience.

Learn more

          

Architecture

Agentic architecture refers to the structure and design of agentic AI frameworks. An agentic architecture shapes the workflow structure to automate AI models within an agentic AI system. 

Learn more

          

Multiagent systems

A multiagent system consists of multiple AI agents working collectively to perform tasks on behalf of a user or another system.

Learn more

          

Frameworks

Agentic frameworks are the building blocks for developing, deploying and managing AI agents. These software platforms have built-in features and functions that help streamline and speed up the process.

Learn more

          

Governance

AI agent governance refers to the processes, standards and guardrails that help ensure agentic systems are safe and ethical.

Learn more

          

Agentic RAG

Agentic RAG is the use of AI agents to facilitate retrieval augmented generation (RAG). Compared to traditional RAG systems, agentic RAG allows large language models to conduct information retrieval from multiple sources and handle more complex workflows. 

Learn more

          

Use cases/applications

AI agents can be applied to several industries including customer service, human resources, sales, procurement and much more.

Learn more
Related solutions
IBM watsonx Orchestrate 

Streamline your workflows and reclaim your day with watsonx Orchestrate’s automation technology.

    Explore watsonx Orchestrate
    IBM AI agent solutions

    Build the future of your business with AI solutions that you can trust.

    Explore AI agent solutions
    IBM AI consulting services

    IBM Consulting AI services help reimagine how businesses work with AI for transformation.

    Explore artificial intelligence services
    Take the next step

    Whether you choose to customize pre-built apps and skills or build and deploy custom agentic services using an AI studio, the IBM watsonx platform has you covered.

    Explore watsonx Orchestrate Explore watsonx.ai