Welcome: Building with AI Agents

Learning Objectives Understand what AI agents are and why they represent the next wave of AI development Know what this playbook covers and what skills you will build Feel confident that you can build useful agents with existing tools and frameworks The Agent Moment AI chatbots are impressive. You type a question, you get an answer. But they have a fundamental limitation: they can only talk. They cannot browse the web, run code, manage files, send emails, query databases, or interact with the software you use every day — not unless you specifically set them up to do so. AI agents change this. An agent is an AI system that can perceive, reason, and act — not just generate text, but actually accomplish tasks in the real world. An agent can research a topic by browsing multiple websites, write code and execute it to verify it works, manage your calendar, process your emails, or orchestrate complex multi-step workflows. In 2026, agents are transitioning from demos to production. Companies are deploying agents for customer support, code generation, data analysis, and workflow automation. Developers who understand how to build, test, and deploy agents have one of the most valuable skill sets in the industry. This playbook gets you there. What You Will Build This is a hands-on playbook. By the end, you will have: Built your first simple AI agent that uses tools to accomplish real tasks Understood MCP (Model Context Protocol) — the open standard for connecting agents to tools Learned…