AI Agents simplified - Understand it. Build it. Scale it.

by Ravi Yeluru

What is an AI Agent?
Imagine a world where every small business, every startup, even every individual developer could spin up a powerful digital assistant in just a few clicks. Not a chatbot. Not a script. But a true AI agent—one that can answer questions, take actions, and talk to customers just like a real teammate.
This isn't some far-off future. It's already happening.
Just like every business today has a website, an email address, or a social media presence, tomorrow's businesses will all have AI agents. These agents won't just reply with canned responses. They'll be able to read documents, pull live data, automate workflows, and make intelligent decisions on our behalf.
Before we dive in, let's ground this in a quick example.
Say you ask your AI assistant: "Can you summarize last month's customer feedback and suggest how to improve our mobile app?".
A typical chatbot might say something vague like "Thanks, we'll look into it." But an AI agent? It actually logs into your feedback system, pulls data from the last 30 days, notices that 28% of users complained about slow load times on Android, and replies with something actionable like: "Users appreciate the app's new design but report performance issues on mid-range Android devices. Optimizing asset loading could significantly reduce friction."
That's insight. That's reasoning. That's the kind of intelligence we're about to build.
The Foundation: Large Language Models (LLMs)
Every AI Agent has a brain called a Large Language Model (LLM).
An LLM is like a language expert with billions of parameters. It's been trained on huge amounts of text from books, websites, and code repositories. This training helps it understand and write both human language and code like an experienced developer. When you ask about a problem, it doesn't search for answers like Google. Instead, it creates responses word by word based on patterns it learned during training.
But here's the limitation: this expert doesn't know anything about your specific systems. It doesn't know your database setup or your cloud infrastructure. It only knows general information from its training data.
Adding Memory: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
What if you want your AI assistant to answer questions about your company's specific setup? It wasn't trained on your internal documents.
That's where Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) comes in. You give the AI access to your files through a special database. When someone asks about your deployment process, the AI thinks: "I don't know this specific setup... let me check the company files, find the most relevant information, and then answer using both my general knowledge and this specific context."
This approach of "find the relevant info first, then answer" is what makes RAG powerful.
Question
Retrieve
Agent searches documents at 0.85 cosine similarity threshold
Process
LLM processes 3-5 chunks of 1024 tokens each
Answer
Agent formats response with code examples and citations
The Big Picture: What Makes an Agent
When you put it all together, an AI agent has:
A brain (that's the LLM)
The language model that powers its thinking and reasoning abilities
Some memory (that's your files and databases)
Access to your specific information through search systems
The ability to take actions
Like sending web requests, writing code, or creating database queries
A growing ability to learn from mistakes
Getting better through feedback and training
This makes it more than just a chatbot. It's an agent that responds quickly, works 24/7, and can handle hundreds of tasks per hour. It doesn't just answer — it gets work done, reliably and securely, with proper error handling.
A Real-World Example
Imagine you work at a software company with 250,000 users that gets 1,200+ support tickets weekly about everything from password resets to complex technical issues.
You build an AI agent and connect it to your support system. You give it access to past tickets and their solutions. You set it up to handle only the simple issues that can be solved automatically - about 63% of all tickets.
Now when someone writes "I can't reset my password for [email protected]," the agent doesn't just direct them to a help page. It checks their account, sees they failed 3 login attempts recently, safely resets their password, sends a notification, and replies with a friendly, personalized message.
If someone responds with a more complex issue like "That reset didn't work for our single sign-on," the agent recognizes this needs human expertise, explains this requires special assistance, and forwards it to your technical team with the relevant information attached.
The result? Your team responds 42% faster and saves 15 hours every week.
How Is This Different From Normal Code?
Scripts vs. Agents
"Couldn't I just write a Python script with a bunch of if-else statements to do these things? Why use an agent that costs money to run?"
Good question. Yes, you could write scripts. But there's a key difference between a script that covers most common cases and an agent that can reason through problems.
A script follows exact instructions you programmed in advance. An agent figures things out by itself using its reasoning abilities.
For example, you don't have to specify exactly how to write each response - it can choose between formal or casual language based on the customer.
You don't need to tell it exactly which database tables to query - it can examine your setup and build the right queries. It learns when to call for human help based on what works and what doesn't.
It's software that can think through problems with high accuracy, not just follow fixed steps.
The Two Types of AI Agents
Personal Agents
These are like private assistants that learn from how you work. They study your patterns by looking at hundreds of examples of your work. If you always check certain websites before writing code, or have a specific way of writing emails, they'll learn to copy your style.
Think of them as AI that works just for you, adapting to your specific way of doing things over time.
Company Agents
These are built for teams or organizations. They follow company rules, not personal preferences. They access shared resources (like databases, documentation, or company APIs), can help multiple users at once, and stay within business guidelines.
If your company has security rules like "Never email sensitive data to outside addresses," the agent will follow these rules with extremely high reliability.
How AI Agents Actually Work: The Process

Act
Executes Python/Node.js code, makes authenticated API calls

Coordinate
Orchestrates microservices or calls specialized agents

Plan
Creates a step-by-step execution plan, similar to a DAG

Reason
Interprets the task using its LLM

Sense
Detects a problem via webhook, API call, or scheduled task
This cycle turns it from a simple chatbot into a thinking, acting digital worker. After completing tasks, it learns from the results and from user feedback to get better over time.
Real-World Applications
Customer Support
Handling 65% of simple tickets, resetting passwords, answering 2,300+ common questions
Data Analysis
Combining multiple spreadsheets, creating dashboards, processing large datasets
Development
Finding bugs in code, creating documentation, reviewing code
HR
Explaining benefit options, creating personalized onboarding guides for different roles
Challenges and Considerations

1

1
Security and Governance
Who should the agent have access to? What security standards should be used? How do you track everything the agent does?

2

2
Ethical Concerns
Preventing bias, avoiding incorrect information, and ensuring proper data handling and privacy

3

3
Technical Integration
Making sure agents work reliably with existing systems, staying available at all times, and handling old or messy data

4

4
Cost Management
Balancing capabilities with expenses ($0.5-2.0 per transaction depending on model choice and usage)
Getting Started with AI Agents
You don't need to know all the frameworks right away. Just understand this: Agents go beyond chatbots. They don't just talk - they do real work by calling functions.
1
Understand LLMs
Learn how language models work (try Hugging Face)
2
Explore RAG
Build a simple system to retrieve information from documents
3
Build a Simple Agent
Start with tools like LangChain or Semantic Kernel
4
Think in Goals, Not Functions
Focus on what you want to achieve, not just how to do it
Why This Matters
This isn't just hype. Companies are already using AI agents to:
  • Speed up hiring by automating resume screening
  • Improve customer satisfaction ratings with 24/7 support
  • Reduce time spent writing documentation
  • Make better decisions with data spread across multiple systems
What's most exciting isn't that AI agents are smart - it's that they're useful in practical ways. They're not here to replace us - they're here to handle the boring parts of our jobs. The repetitive tasks that take up 33% of an engineer's time. The constant switching between applications. The gathering and formatting of data that fills our days.
If you've ever wished for a helper that could "just handle it" - that's what these systems do, with returns on investment.
As a software engineer, understanding AI agents gives you an advantage as they become standard in software development. By the end of 2025, experts predict that 70% of new software will include some form of agent-based automation.
Build Your First AI Agent: A Resume Reviewer
In this tutorial, we'll create our very first AI Agent—a smart assistant that analyzes a job description, reviews resumes, scores candidates, and explains exactly why each one is a good (or not-so-good) fit. This isn't just another script. It's a thinking, goal-oriented tool powered by GPT. We'll show how and why it's different.
Why Build This?
Imagine we're part of a tech hiring team at Stripe or Airbnb. Each job gets 300+ applicants, and reviewing those resumes manually can take 40+ hours. That's slow and exhausting.
With this agent, we'll:
  • Understand the job's key requirements (skills, experience, education)
  • Process resumes in PDF, TXT, or DOCX (even if they're messy)
  • Score each candidate using four weighted criteria:
  • Technical skills (40%)
  • Years of experience (30%)
  • Education (10%)
  • Soft skills and culture fit (20%)
  • Generate clear, human-like explanations for each candidate
  • See a ranked list of the best matches
Even better? We'll do all this using GPT (gpt-3.5-turbo or gpt-4), LangChain, and Python—tools we're probably already curious about.
Design Our Agent
We're building an intelligent hiring assistant that:
  • Reads a job description in natural language
  • Processes multiple resumes (in different formats)
  • Thinks through matches—not just with keyword matching, but real language understanding
  • Outputs a clear score and justification
The agent will:
  • Use a Large Language Model (LLM) like GPT-3.5 or GPT-4
  • Use LangChain to structure the prompts and handle output parsing
  • Read PDFs using PyPDF2
  • Optionally, offer a UI with Streamlit
It's more than a chatbot. It's a tool that reasons, explains, and helps us make better hiring decisions.
Project Setup
First, install the required dependencies:
pip install langchain langchain-openai openai PyPDF2
For the UI:
pip install streamlit==1.28.0
Set your OpenAI API key via terminal:
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key_here
Or within Python:
import os os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"] = "your_key_here"
Implementing the Agent
resume_analyzer.py is the heart of our AI agent. It takes in a job description and a candidate's resume, extracts the relevant text, and uses a GPT-powered language model to evaluate the match between them. Unlike traditional resume screeners that rely on rigid keyword matching, this script generates intelligent, structured feedback based on how well the candidate meets the job’s technical, experiential, educational, and soft skill requirements. It produces a numerical match score along with human-readable justifications—explaining strengths, weaknesses, and reasoning behind the score. The agent behaves like a smart assistant, capable of understanding context and drawing insights from resumes the way a human recruiter would. This is not just automation; it’s intelligent evaluation powered by LLM reasoning.
# resume_analyzer.py from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI from langchain.prompts import PromptTemplate from langchain.output_parsers import PydanticOutputParser from PyPDF2 import PdfReader from pydantic import BaseModel, Field import json import sys from typing import List from pathlib import Path class ResumeEvaluation(BaseModel): score: int = Field(description="Overall match score from 0-100") strengths: List[str] = Field(description="List of candidate strengths") weaknesses: List[str] = Field(description="List of missing skills or experiences") explanation: str = Field(description="Detailed explanation of the evaluation") parser = PydanticOutputParser(pydantic_object=ResumeEvaluation) def read_pdf(path): reader = PdfReader(path) text = "" for page in reader.pages: text += page.extract_text() or "" return text llm = ChatOpenAI(temperature=0, model="gpt-3.5-turbo") template = PromptTemplate.from_template(""" You are an AI hiring assistant for a software engineering position. Your job is to review a resume and compare it to the job description. Job Description: {job} Candidate Resume: {resume} First, identify the key requirements from the job description (skills, experience, education). Then, find evidence in the resume for each requirement. Be specific about years of experience and project details. Evaluate the match on a scale of 0 to 100 using these criteria: - Technical skills match (weight: 40%) - Years of experience (weight: 30%) - Education requirements (weight: 10%) - Soft skills and cultural fit indicators (weight: 20%) {format_instructions} """) prompt = template.partial(format_instructions=parser.get_format_instructions()) def evaluate_resume(job_path, resume_path): try: with open(job_path, "r") as file: job_description = file.read() if resume_path.endswith(".pdf"): resume_text = read_pdf(resume_path) else: with open(resume_path, "r") as file: resume_text = file.read() formatted_prompt = prompt.format(job=job_description, resume=resume_text) response = llm.invoke(formatted_prompt).content return parser.parse(response) except Exception as e: return f"Error: {str(e)}" if __name__ == "__main__": if len(sys.argv) != 3: print("Usage: python resume_analyzer.py ") sys.exit(1) job_path = str(Path(sys.argv[1]).expanduser()) resume_path = str(Path(sys.argv[2]).expanduser()) result = evaluate_resume(job_path, resume_path) if isinstance(result, str): print(result) else: print(json.dumps(result.model_dump(), indent=2))
Test with a single resume:
python resume_analyzer.py job_description.txt resumes/John_Doe.pdf
You should receive output similar to:
{ "score": 78, "strengths": [ "5 years of Java development (2 years more than required)", "Strong Spring Boot experience with 3 production applications", "Computer Science degree from accredited university", "Experience with microservices architecture" ], "weaknesses": [ "No Kubernetes experience mentioned (required in job description)", "Limited AWS exposure (only mentions S3, job requires EC2 and Lambda)", "No mention of CI/CD pipeline experience" ], "explanation": "This candidate demonstrates strong backend development skills with Java and Spring Boot, exceeding the required experience. Their CS degree fulfills the educational requirement. However, they lack specific DevOps skills mentioned in the job description, particularly Kubernetes and comprehensive AWS experience. The candidate would likely require some training in these areas but has a solid foundation to build upon." }
Processing Multiple Resumes
Scale the solution to handle a folder of resumes with parallel processing:
batch_resume_analyzer.py extends the resume analyzer into a scalable tool that can process an entire folder of resumes in parallel. It evaluates each resume against the same job description using the AI agent logic, collects the results, and outputs both a detailed JSON report and a Markdown summary highlighting the top five candidates. Each result includes a match score, key strengths, areas for improvement, and a natural-language explanation generated by the language model. This script transforms the one-on-one evaluation into a high-efficiency screening pipeline—ideal for real-world hiring scenarios where dozens or even hundreds of resumes need to be reviewed intelligently, quickly, and consistently.
# batch_resume_analyzer.py import os import json from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor from tqdm import tqdm from pathlib import Path from resume_analyzer import evaluate_resume # Make sure evaluate_resume is importable folder = "resumes" results = {} def process_file(filename): if filename.endswith((".pdf", ".txt", ".docx")): path = os.path.join(folder, filename) try: result = evaluate_resume("job_description.txt", path) return filename, result except Exception as e: return filename, f"Error: {str(e)}" return None, None files = [f for f in os.listdir(folder) if f.endswith((".pdf", ".txt", ".docx"))] with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=5) as executor: for filename, result in tqdm(executor.map(process_file, files), total=len(files)): if filename: if hasattr(result, "model_dump"): results[filename] = result.model_dump() else: results[filename] = result with open("match_report.json", "w") as f: json.dump(results, f, indent=2) ranked_candidates = sorted( [(name, data) for name, data in results.items() if isinstance(data, dict)], key=lambda x: x[1].get("score", 0), reverse=True ) with open("match_report.md", "w") as f: f.write("# Resume Matching Results\n\n") f.write("## Top Candidates\n\n") for i, (name, data) in enumerate(ranked_candidates[:5], 1): f.write(f"### {i}. {name} - Score: {data['score']}/100\n\n") f.write("**Strengths:**\n") for s in data["strengths"]: f.write(f"- {s}\n") f.write("\n**Areas for Improvement:**\n") for w in data["weaknesses"]: f.write(f"- {w}\n") f.write(f"\n**Summary:** {data['explanation']}\n\n")
Test with many resumes in a folder
python batch_resume_analyzer.py
This program reads a job description and evaluates multiple resumes using an AI agent powered by GPT. It scores each resume, identifies strengths and weaknesses, and generates a report highlighting the top 5 ranked candidates in both JSON and Markdown formats.
Creating a Simple UI
Add a user interface with Streamlit for real-time feedback:
app.py brings the resume evaluation agent into an interactive, user-friendly interface using Streamlit. It allows users to upload a job description and multiple resumes directly from their browser, select their preferred AI model, and set a minimum score threshold. Once triggered, the app processes each resume using the same intelligent agent logic and displays ranked results in real time. Each candidate's evaluation includes a match score, strengths, weaknesses, and a detailed analysis. This turns the backend intelligence of the agent into a practical tool for non-technical users, making AI-powered hiring accessible and intuitive.
# app.py import streamlit as st import tempfile import os import json from resume_analyzer import evaluate_resume from langchain_openai import ChatOpenAI st.set_page_config(page_title="AI Resume Reviewer", layout="wide") st.title("AI Resume Reviewer") st.write("Upload a job description and resumes to find the best matches") with st.sidebar: st.header("Settings") model_choice = st.selectbox( "Select AI Model", ["gpt-3.5-turbo ($0.002/1K tokens)", "gpt-4 ($0.06/1K tokens)"] ) threshold = st.slider( "Minimum Matching Score", min_value=0, max_value=100, value=60, help="Only show candidates above this score" ) col1, col2 = st.columns(2) job_path = None resume_paths = [] with col1: st.subheader("Job Description") uploaded_job = st.file_uploader("Upload Job Description", type=["txt", "pdf"]) if uploaded_job: with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(delete=False, suffix='.txt') as tmp: tmp.write(uploaded_job.getvalue()) job_path = tmp.name with col2: st.subheader("Resumes") uploaded_resumes = st.file_uploader( "Upload Resumes", type=["pdf", "txt", "docx"], accept_multiple_files=True ) if uploaded_job and uploaded_resumes and st.button("Analyze Resumes"): progress_bar = st.progress(0) results = [] model_name = "gpt-3.5-turbo" if "3.5" in model_choice else "gpt-4" for i, resume_file in enumerate(uploaded_resumes): with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(delete=False, suffix=f'.{resume_file.name.split(".")[-1]}') as tmp: tmp.write(resume_file.getvalue()) resume_path = tmp.name resume_paths.append(resume_path) progress = (i + 1) / len(uploaded_resumes) progress_bar.progress(progress) st.write(f"Processing: {resume_file.name}") result = evaluate_resume(job_path, resume_path) if hasattr(result, 'model_dump'): results.append((resume_file.name, result.model_dump())) st.success("Analysis complete!") sorted_results = sorted(results, key=lambda x: x[1]['score'], reverse=True) filtered_results = [r for r in sorted_results if r[1]['score'] >= threshold] if not filtered_results: st.warning(f"No candidates scored above the {threshold}% threshold") for name, result in filtered_results: with st.expander(f"{name} - Match Score: {result['score']}%"): col1, col2 = st.columns(2) with col1: st.subheader("Strengths") for strength in result['strengths']: st.write(f"- {strength}") with col2: st.subheader("Areas for Improvement") for weakness in result['weaknesses']: st.write(f"- {weakness}") st.subheader("Detailed Analysis") st.write(result['explanation']) try: os.unlink(job_path) for path in resume_paths: os.unlink(path) except: pass
This Streamlit app allows users to upload a job description and multiple resumes, then uses a GPT-powered AI agent to evaluate each resume, score them based on relevance, and display the top-matching candidates with strengths, weaknesses, and a summary. It provides a simple, real-time interface for AI-driven resume screening.
Launch the application:
💡 Pro Tip: You can deploy this on Streamlit Cloud, HuggingFace Spaces, or even embed it into an internal hiring dashboard for HR or Engineering teams.
streamlit run app.py
So... Is This Really an AI Agent?
Yes—and here's why:
  • It doesn't just follow fixed rules.
  • It reasons through each resume like a human would.
  • It explains its thinking.
  • It adapts to new resumes without being reprogrammed.
  • We gave it a goal ("find the best matches"), and it figured out how.
That's what agents do. They don't just respond—they act.
What We've Built
  • An AI resume reviewer that processes dozens of resumes in minutes
  • A goal-oriented GPT-powered agent that ranks and explains decisions
  • A real-world use case that demonstrates the power of language models
One standout example was evaluating a Java Spring developer's resume. The agent intelligently interpreted the candidate's experience with Spring Boot, matched it against a requirement of Java + Kubernetes, and correctly identified the gap. It didn't just check for keywords—it reasoned that "3 production apps in Spring Boot" signals backend strength, but "no mention of Kubernetes" means the candidate needs DevOps training. That level of judgment shows how LLMs can emulate human reasoning in practical workflows.
But perhaps most importantly, we've built a foundation. While our agent already performs a valuable task autonomously, we now have a clear path to take it even further:
What's next
  • Add memory with vector databases like ChromaDB to store past job descriptions or user feedback
  • Introduce Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to let the agent fetch relevant information from job corpora or company documentation
  • Expand it to multi-step tasks with LangGraph or custom planners
  • Connect it to live data sources or job boards via APIs
  • Loop in human feedback to help it improve over time
Our agent today thinks and acts within a single task. Tomorrow, it could handle entire workflows—completely hands-free. We're not just using AI. We're shaping how the next generation of software works.
Welcome to the future of software engineering.