AI agents are intelligent systems designed to perceive their environment, make decisions, and perform tasks autonomously to achieve specific goals. These agents use machine learning algorithms, natural language processing, and data analytics to understand and interpret data, learn from experience, and improve their performance over time. They can be reactive or proactive, working in various domains such as customer service, healthcare, finance, and more, to automate processes, provide insights, and enhance decision-making, making them integral to modern AI applications.