Intro to AI Agents

The word agent now appears on almost every AI product, from simple chatbots to tools that browse, buy, and edit files on their own. Some of these products really do take a task and work through it step by step. Others are chatbots with a new label. When you cannot tell the 2 apart, it is hard to know what to hand over, how much freedom to give, or what could go wrong once you look away.

The first half of the course explains what an AI agent actually is and how it works. It starts with the definition the field settled on, a model running tools in a loop toward a goal, and the autonomy slider that sets how much control a person hands over. It then opens up the parts every agent shares: the model, its tools and connectors, the context it can see, and the harness that keeps it on track. Along the way, it covers open standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP), agents that operate computers, and teams of agents that split the work.

The second half turns that understanding into judgment. You practice writing a brief with a clear goal, firm constraints, and a definition of done, choosing the right level of autonomy for the stakes, and checking an agent's log, output, and side effects before anyone relies on them. The final level covers how agents fail, how prompt injection turns into data theft through the lethal trifecta, the difference between real oversight and approval theater, and where agents are heading next.

Agents are quickly becoming part of the tools you already use, from deep research and coding assistants to browsers, inboxes, and calendars that act on your behalf. The skills here do not depend on any single product. Model names and features change every few months, but a clear brief, a well-placed checkpoint, and a careful review work with whichever agent comes next.

By the end, you can spot a real agent behind the marketing, delegate a task with confidence, and know which risks to remove before handing over the keys. The course builds on Intro to Vibe Coding but does not require it, and it assumes no coding background at all.