How do you define AI Agent? · Construction Contractors Hub

Tim Fairley

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7d • General discussion

How do you define AI Agent?

I hear a lot of confusion about the term “AI agent” in construction.

To me, an agent pulls together a few different concepts:

Workflows that explain how to complete repeatable tasks
Context from your project documents, registers and correspondence
Memory about the project, your business and how you prefer to work
Tools and permissions that control what it can access and what actions it can take

We then package this into an interface that we or our team can call when we need work done.

The main difference between a workflow and an agent is responsibility. A workflow completes a defined task. An agent owns a narrow area of responsibility, chooses which workflows to run, checks the result and keeps a record of what it has done.

Would I let an AI agent autonomously build a programme or send contractual notices? No.

But I would let it monitor correspondence, identify a potential variation, update the register and draft a notice for review.

That is where agents are useful today: bounded responsibilities, clear permissions and human approval.

I explain the full model here: https://youtu.be/hnGixjVMD2g

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How do you define AI Agent?