AI Agents in Practice — Part 2: What Makes Something an Agent

Part 1 ended with Priya's order shipped and the agent confidently refunding her anyway. Here's the same request, in a system that's been built differently: "Hi, I'd like to cancel order and get a refund." The system reads the order status - shipped. It sees that the cancellation procedure requires the order not to be shipped. It doesn't try to cancel. It doesn't apologize and ask if there's anything else. It says: "Order already shipped yesterday. Automatic cancellation only applies before shipment. I can start a return when it arrives, or connect you with a human agent right now.