Building Applications with AI Agents

Chapter 4. Tool Use

While foundation models are great at chatting for hours, tools are the building blocks that empower AI agents to retrieve additional information and context, perform tasks, and interact with the environment in meaningful ways. In the context of AI, a tool can be defined as a specific capability or a set of actions that an agent can perform to achieve a desired outcome. These tools range from simple, single-step tasks to complex, multistep operations that require advanced reasoning and problem-solving abilities. Especially if you want your agent to make actual changes, instead of just searching for and providing information, tools will be how those changes are executed.

The significance of tools in AI agents parallels the importance of competencies in human professionals. Just as a doctor needs a diverse set of tools to diagnose and treat patients, an AI agent requires a repertoire of tools to handle various tasks effectively. This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of tools in AI agents, exploring their design, development, and deployment.

AI agents, at their core, are sophisticated systems designed to interact with their environment, process information, and execute tasks autonomously. To do this efficiently, they rely on a structured set of tools. These tools are modular components that can be developed, tested, and optimized independently, then integrated to form a cohesive system capable of complex behavior.

In practical terms, a tool ...