A Comprehensive Review of AI Agents: Transforming Possibilities in Technology and Beyond
It provides a comprehensive overview for researchers and practitioners in AI, but is incremental as it reviews existing work rather than presenting new findings.
This review paper examines the evolution of AI agents from rule-based programs to autonomous systems, identifying the integration of cognition, planning, and interaction as a grand challenge while synthesizing insights from various models and frameworks.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have rapidly evolved from specialized, rule-based programs to versatile, learning-driven autonomous systems capable of perception, reasoning, and action in complex environments. The explosion of data, advances in deep learning, reinforcement learning, and multi-agent coordination have accelerated this transformation. Yet, designing and deploying unified AI agents that seamlessly integrate cognition, planning, and interaction remains a grand challenge. In this review, we systematically examine the architectural principles, foundational components, and emergent paradigms that define the landscape of contemporary AI agents. We synthesize insights from cognitive science-inspired models, hierarchical reinforcement learning frameworks, and large language model-based reasoning. Moreover, we discuss the pressing ethical, safety, and interpretability concerns associated with deploying these agents in real-world scenarios. By highlighting major breakthroughs, persistent challenges, and promising research directions, this review aims to guide the next generation of AI agent systems toward more robust, adaptable, and trustworthy autonomous intelligence.