ChatbotorAgent
A chatbot is an interface: a conversation window, which can be plugged into anything at all, rules written by hand included. An agent is an architecture: a system that pursues a goal in a loop, and that needs no conversation window in order to exist.
Point by point
| Criterion | Floor 2Floor 2 · The Harnessthe block and its bolted-on plates: what gets added to itChatbot | Floor 3Floor 3 · The Agentthe block caught in a loop: it starts again until it gets thereAgent |
|---|---|---|
| What the word describes | The shape of the exchange | The way of working |
| What sets it off | A message | A goal |
| Number of steps | One per message | As many as it takes |
| Can exist without the other | Yes, with no agent behind it | Yes, with no conversation at all |
| What you watch | How relevant the answers are | Cost, traces, stopping points |
| Age of the word | Older than language models | Younger |
On the ground four situations
A retail site assistant answers questions on delivery times, one answer per message.
Floor 2 · The Harnessthe block and its bolted-on plates: what gets added to itChatbotIt is a conversation interface plugged into a base of answers. Nothing chains steps of its own accord.
A system receives a ticket, consults three tools, corrects a configuration and closes the ticket, with no chat interface.
Floor 3 · The Agentthe block caught in a loop: it starts again until it gets thereAgentNo conversation window, and yet a goal pursued through several chosen steps: that is an agent.
A touch-tone voice menu that routes you to the right department.
Floor 2 · The Harnessthe block and its bolted-on plates: what gets added to itChatbotThe useful counter-example: this kind of system existed well before language models, and it shows that the word chatbot says nothing about the technology in use.
A chat window behind which a system chains searches and tool calls until a case is prepared.
BothAn agent, presented in a chatbot interface. Both words are true and describe two different things: the shape and the workings.
The test that settles it
Remove the chat window. If the system can still receive a goal and work, it was an agent. If it has nothing left to do, it was a chatbot.
The trap
Calling everything that talks an “agent” is the sales shortcut of the moment. The conversation window says nothing about what happens behind it: it can hide a tree of rules just as easily as an autonomous loop.
Check click your answer
Level 1 · Recognise
Does a chatbot imply a language model?
Level 2 · Distinguish
Can an agent exist without a conversation interface?
Level 2 · Distinguish
What are you comparing when you set “chatbot” and “agent” against each other?