AI Agents Demystified: What They Actually Are (And Aren't)

Everyone's talking about AI agents.

Autonomous AI. Agentic workflows. Multi-agent systems.

Most people have no idea what any of this actually means.

Let's fix that.

This session cuts through the buzzwords to give you a clear, practical understanding of what AI agents really are—and more importantly, what they can realistically do for your work today.

What We'll Cover:

• What "agent" actually means (spoiler: it's simpler than vendors want you to think)

• The spectrum from chatbots to autonomous agents—where different tools sit

• Tool use and function calling: How agents actually get things done

• MCP (Model Context Protocol): The new standard connecting AI to your data

• Multi-agent systems: When you need them, when you don't

• Live demos: Agents in action, not just theory

You'll Learn:

• How to evaluate whether an "agent" is actually an agent or just marketing

• The three levels of agent capability (and which level you probably need)

• Practical use cases that work today vs what's still hype

• How to start building simple agents without writing code

• What's coming in the next 12 months that will actually matter

This Session Is For:

• Anyone confused by the AI agent buzzword explosion

• Technical professionals who want to understand the architecture

• Business leaders evaluating "agentic AI" vendor pitches

• Curious practitioners who want to separate signal from noise

What You'll Leave With:

• A clear mental model for understanding AI agents

• A framework for evaluating agent capabilities and claims

• Practical next steps if you want to experiment

• Resources for deeper learning

About the Session:

This is a practitioner-led explanation based on actually building and deploying agent systems—not a vendor pitch or theoretical overview.

Bring your questions. We'll answer them honestly.