What is the difference between an AI agent and a chatbot?

The core difference is what happens after you send a message. A chatbot does a single round trip — you ask, it replies, and it's finished. An AI agent runs a loop: it decides on an action, actually performs it using tools, observes the result, and keeps going until the goal is met.

A chatbot talks; an agent works through a task.

How do they actually differ?

A chatbot maps your input to one response. Even a smart one that pulls from documents still produces a single reply and stops. An agent treats your request as a goal, then plans and executes multiple steps toward it, changing course based on what each step returns.

What makes an agent able to do more?

Two things. First, tools: an agent can act in the world — search the web, query a database, send an email — instead of only describing what to do. Second, the loop: after each action it reads the result and decides the next step, so it can recover from a dead end rather than committing to one guess up front.

Which one do I actually need?

Match the tool to the job:

• Use a chatbot when a good answer or a bit of drafting finishes the task — support FAQs, quick explanations, brainstorming.
• Use an agent when the task has several steps and real actions — researching across sites, filing a ticket, reconciling data, writing and running code.

Agents are more capable but harder to trust, since a small early mistake can snowball across a long chain of actions. That's why anything risky gets guardrails and a human checkpoint. If a single reply does the job, a chatbot is simpler, cheaper, and easier to control.