Blog
The Shift from Automation to Autonomy: What Are AI Agents?
.png)
Published on
February 5, 2025
Pricing
You may have heard about AI agents but apart from being a tech buzzword what actually are they and can they act autonomously? In this blog, we explain.
If you have been keeping even half an eye on tech industry news recently, chances are you’ve heard of AI agents. This type of AI automates all kinds of tasks to make both your personal and professional life easier. However, while the term gets mentioned frequently in the news, like many things in the world of AI, its meaning can vary depending on who you are speaking to. As experts in automated AI testing, we are here to clear things up. So if you’ve been reading the tech news and caught yourself wondering, "What are AI agents?" then you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s start with the obvious: what exactly are AI agents? You have probably heard of terms like ‘agentic AI’ or ‘autonomous AI’, but how do AI agents fit into the picture? Are they super intelligent, self-thinking robots straight out of a sci-fi movie? Not quite.
AI agents are goal-driven tools designed to autonomously complete specific tasks all within a defined scope. They interact with their environment and pre-trained data to execute predetermined goals, but they are not independent thinkers. Humans set their objectives and then the AI agents take action.
This differs slightly from agentic AI, which refers to a more advanced form of AI capable of making self-determined decisions with minimal human intervention. For example, self-driving cars are considered agentic AI because they can assess their surroundings and make decisions in real time.
AI agents, by contrast, excel in environments that are more structured and predictable. They’re ideal for completing repetitive tasks efficiently within closed systems with humans there to prompt them.
Want to find out more about agentic AI and AI agents? Then read our blogs on what agentic AI is and agentic AI vs. AI agents which go into more detail on the subjects.
The most obvious examples of AI agents is, of course, generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, GitHub Copilot, and of course, the new Chinese AI app DeepSeek that is all over the news, to name a few. These all use AI agents in some capacity to perform tasks prompted by humans.
But what many people are excited about is the move towards agentic AI, with agents that have more autonony.
Imagine an AI agent that can analyze the food in your fridge, identify you are low on milk, and automatically order the item to be delivered in your next online grocery shop.
A few years ago, this would have seemed a far-off notion, but with agentic AI and intelligent agents, it’s now starting to become a reality.
You can find out more about Generative AI vs Agentic AI in another one of our posts.
So how does Virtuoso fit into all of this?
At Virtuoso QA, we are at the forefront of AI technology, driving innovation by making software testing faster, smarter, and easier through our automated AI testing tools. And AI agents are no longer a watch-this-space promise. They are in the platform today, working under human oversight through Virtuoso QA Touchstone.
Touchstone runs a system of specialised AI agents that turn the specs and tickets you already have into runnable tests, with AI proposing, a deterministic engine executing, and a human approving every change. It is agentic software testing built for enterprises that need the speed without surrendering the control.
Cut tedious test maintenance down to size with our intuitive self-healing and continuous testing. Our AI-powered platform allows you to run more tests with greater accuracy. And you don't even have to be a world-class coder to do so. Our no-code test automation with plain English commands allows even the most technophobic of team members to author and execute accurate tests at scale.
So, now you are better acquainted with our AI-powered features, what's next in the world of AI?
2025 was widely dubbed the year of AI agents, with Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI, predicting that AI agents would 'join the workforce'. The prediction has largely held, and the next move is already visible, namely multi-agent ecosystems, where agents work together across platforms to complete complex, multi-stage tasks.
We know, because we built one. Touchstone's agents each do one job, one reads your documentation, another drafts requirements, another builds the test journey, another drives a real browser to validate it, and they hand work to each other the way a well-run team does. The lesson from running agents in production is that the point is not zero human input. It is fewer, better human decisions, with people approving what matters instead of doing what repeats.
Think of the consumer version this way. Today you can prompt ChatGPT for a list of holiday destinations. In a multi-agent world, one request could research, compare and book the entire trip, with you confirming the choices that matter along the way. Quicker, easier, and with human judgement kept exactly where it belongs.
Curious to find out more about our AI-powered software testing? Then book a demo now and see Virtuoso QA in action.
Try Virtuoso QA in Action
See how Virtuoso QA transforms plain English into fully executable tests within seconds.
