Day 38 of 100 Days Agentic Engineer Challenge: What is a Real AI Agent?

I see everywhere posts about AI agents, researcher agents, marketing agents and many other tools that automate some tasks, yes they are just workflows, sometimes very complex ones, but they are still workflows, not agents. Let’s try to find a minimal AI agent example that could be built in short possible time, it can be even of complexity simpler from some workflows, but it should be a real AI agent. Before we find one, let’s have a look at my daily work routine.

Daily Tasks Routine

1. Physical Activity — I did 50 squats.
2. Seven hours of sleep — I slept for 7 hours, but I went to bed too late.
3. AI Agent — I’m trying to build a real agent, a simple one, but it should be an agent not an automation.
4. PAIC — In queue.
5. Data Science — In queue.

If you want to know what all these tasks are about, read the introduction to the 100 Days Agentic Engineer Challenge.

What is a Real AI Agent?

A real AI agent is characterized by its ability to:

• Act autonomously by making independent decisions.
• Perceive and model its environment using sensor inputs.
• Pursue goals through dynamic planning and proactive behavior.
• Learn from experience and adjust its behavior over time.
• Maintain memory and context to guide decisions.
• Integrate and interact with external tools, agents, or humans.
• Operate robustly in complex, ever-changing settings.

These capabilities differentiate a genuine AI agent from simpler systems like fixed workflows, basic automations, or narrow-purpose bots. They encapsulate the broader vision of creating systems that can “think” and “act” in a way that approximates — or even eventually surpasses — certain aspects of human cognition.

By meeting these requirements, AI agents have the potential not only to automate tasks but also to drive innovation, make sophisticated decisions in real time, and ultimately work alongside or on behalf of humans in a wide range of applications.

Core Requirements for Building an AI Agent

A minimal AI agent must meet several key criteria beyond a fixed automation script:

• Perception:
  The agent needs a way to “sense” its environment — this might be via sensors, data feeds, or API calls that provide current state information.
• Decision-Making:
  It must have a built-in decision engine (typically rule‐based or a simple state machine) that maps incoming percepts to actions. Even a minimal level of adaptability (e.g., switching among a few rules based on context) elevates it above rigid automation.
• Autonomy:
  Once configured, the agent should run independently without requiring constant human intervention. This includes self-monitoring (tracking progress) and self-regulation (adjusting behavior if needed).
• Action/Actuation:
  The agent must have a way to “act” on the environment, whether that means sending API requests, updating a database, or issuing commands in a simulation.
• Memory/Learning (Minimal):
  Even a basic mechanism that remembers recent events or adjusts thresholds based on outcomes (e.g., a simple feedback loop) helps the agent adapt its behavior over time.
• Integration:
  The agent should interface with external systems (such as social media APIs or CRM platforms) to both receive data and execute actions.
• Self-Termination Logic:
  It must be able to monitor a key metric (such as a follower count) and autonomously decide when its goal has been met, thereby stopping further actions.

“By embedding perception, decision-making, and minimal adaptive learning in a self-contained module, an AI system shifts from static automation to an autonomous agent capable of dynamic behavior.”

virtasant.com

Let’s come up with an idea for a simple agent, maybe Social Media Follower Growth Agent?

Description of the Instagram Follower Growth Agent

The proposed Instagram agent is a software-based MarTech agent designed to grow an account organically until it gains the first 100 followers. Its design includes:

• Initial Configuration:
  The user provides essential inputs such as Instagram account credentials (or API tokens), target hashtags or keywords, and engagement guidelines (e.g., number of likes, follows, and optionally natural, non-spammy comments). Action limits are set to mimic human-like activity.
• Autonomous Engagement:
  The agent autonomously “senses” new content on Instagram by querying posts under the target hashtags. Based on its rule-based decision engine, it interacts with posts — liking, following, or commenting — using randomized delays to simulate natural behavior.
• Self-Monitoring and Reporting:
  It tracks engagement metrics such as the number of new followers. The agent generates daily reports (sent automatically via email or another channel) summarizing its actions and the growth progress.
• Goal-Based Termination:
  The system continuously monitors the follower count, and once it reaches 100 new followers, it automatically ceases its activities.
• Software-Only Implementation:
  The agent is built using standard programming tools (for example, Python with libraries like Selenium or an Instagram API wrapper, along with scheduling and logging modules), ensuring that the entire process is handled in software without reliance on physical hardware.

“This Instagram agent leverages a self-contained, adaptive process — configuring engagement rules, acting on real-time data, and monitoring progress autonomously — thus differentiating itself from simple automation scripts.”

skphd.medium.com

Must-Have features of an AI Agent

The real AI agent has to work autonomously until it reaches a goal, it needs a long-term memory so it can learn for previous activities.
So I need:

• ReAct Agent — reasoning
• Autonomous Agent — work at self-defined times
• Browser Use — access to browser and social media account
• Long term memory — to analyze the tasks and learn from failures and successes
• Reporting — to send me daily status emails

Probably I should start with only text based posts, so in this case X or Threads would be the best platform. Another idea would be a researcher agent that looks for news and make based on that very engaging posts trying to get as many likes and comments and possibly analyze the posts but also other accounts on the particular social media platform. I have to think about that, but first I have to find solution for few things:

1. How to make Agent work 24h?
2. How to manage long term memory and self improvement?
3. Find a best Browser or Computer Use solution.