What a chatbot does
A chatbot lives inside a conversation. You ask a question, it responds, and the exchange largely ends there. Modern chatbots can be very good at answering FAQs, deflecting support tickets, and guiding users — but they don't take actions in your systems on their own.
What an AI agent does
An AI agent is built to complete tasks. Given a goal, it plans the steps, calls the tools and systems it needs (APIs, databases, internal services), evaluates the result, and corrects course — often across many steps — until the job is done. That ability to act is the dividing line.
Side-by-side comparison
| Dimension | Chatbot | AI agent |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Answer questions | Complete multi-step tasks |
| Tools | None or simple lookups | Calls APIs, databases, and tools |
| Autonomy | One turn at a time | Plans, acts, and self-corrects |
| Best for | FAQs, deflection, guidance | Automating real workflows |
Which do you need?
If your goal is to answer common questions, a chatbot is enough. If your goal is to automate work — triaging documents, updating records across systems, running a process end to end — you need an agent. We build the latter as AI workflow automation, part of our broader AI solutions practice.