What is an AI Agent — and Why Should Data Engineers Care?

AI agents are the most talked-about technology in data engineering right now. Here is a plain-English breakdown of what they actually are, how the agentic loop works, and why this changes the data engineer’s job in ways that matter. You cannot scroll through a data engineering newsletter, LinkedIn feed, or conference agenda right now without running into the phrase AI agent. It is everywhere. And like most things that are everywhere, it has also become hard to pin down - stretched across enough use cases that it has started to lose meaning. So let’s slow down and actually define it.