In depth
Agentic is the marketing-friendly word for 'this product uses an agent loop, not just an LLM call'. The substance is real (the loop is what separates an agent from a chatbot) but the term is overused, including for products that are basically chat completions in a wrapper. When you read 'agentic' on a vendor page, check for the loop, the tools, and the goal, the three ingredients that make a real agent.
Related concepts
AI agentAn autonomous program that uses an LLM to plan and execute multi-step tasks via tools, in a loop, until a goal is reached.Agent loopThe core runtime cycle of an agent: think, act, observe, repeat, until the goal is reached.Tool useThe LLM capability to emit a structured call to an external function, which the runtime executes and feeds back as context.
Read the deep dive
What is an AI agent? A 2026 guide for engineers
Read article
Newsletter
Get the next post in your inbox.
Engineering notes from the Digitorn team. No marketing, no launch announcements, no "10 prompts that will change your life". Just the things we write that we'd want to read.