What is an AI agent?
Updated By Akkrev
An AI agent takes a goal, such as booking a hotel, and does the steps itself: searching, clicking, filling in forms and asking before it pays.
An AI agent is an AI system that doesn’t just answer questions but acts on them. Give it a goal like “book me a quiet double room in Bath for Friday under £180” and it plans the steps, opens websites, compares options, fills in forms and comes back to you before anything irreversible, such as paying.
Most consumer agents are built on a large language model plus tools: a web browser, sometimes a payment method, and memory of your preferences. Examples include ChatGPT agent, Gemini in Chrome, Claude, Perplexity Comet, and personal agents such as Meta’s Muse and Instinct.
How an agent differs from a chatbot
A chatbot answers. An agent does. When a guest asks a chatbot for a hotel, it gives a list. When a guest asks an agent, it tries to make the booking, which means it has to get through a real website.
Why hotels should care
An agent books where it can. If a hotel’s own booking engine blocks it or confuses it, the agent picks another route, usually an online travel agency, or another hotel entirely. Being bookable by agents is becoming as important as being findable on Google.
Related terms
Agentic browser, agentic commerce, Model Context Protocol.
Why it matters for AI visibility
Agents act on the shortlist an AI assistant builds. Being on that shortlist is the job of AI visibility work.