What is an AI agent?
An AI agent is a program that uses a large language model (LLM) to understand what a person wants and then does something about it. In customer chat, that means more than writing a reply. The agent can call tools, for example:
- search the product catalog for price, options and stock,
- add items to a cart and calculate the total,
- send an order form and place the order,
- look up an existing order's status,
- hand the conversation to a human when it is unsure.
A traditional chatbot follows a script: press 1 for prices, press 2 for delivery. An AI agent reads free text like "blue ta L size e ache? Dhakar baire koto din lagbe?" and works out the answer.
Why does it matter for sellers in Bangladesh?
Chat-based shops get the same questions hundreds of times a day, often late at night, in Bangla, English and Banglish. An AI agent can answer instantly from your own data, take simple COD orders, and leave your team the work that needs judgement. The key is grounding: it should answer from your catalog and knowledge base, not from guesswork, which is what retrieval-augmented generation is for.
Example
A customer asks for a black hoodie in size M. The agent searches the catalog, confirms stock and price, adds it to the cart, sends the order form, and the order arrives as a numbered cash-on-delivery order for the team to pack.
SaleMag's AI order taking works this way, looking up products before stating prices and handing chats over for complaints and bulk orders.
Related terms
Human handover, retrieval-augmented generation, conversational commerce.
Frequently asked questions
Is an AI agent the same as a chatbot?
An AI agent is a kind of chatbot. Older chatbots follow fixed menus and keywords; an AI agent understands free text and can use tools to act.
Can an AI agent give wrong prices?
It can if it is allowed to guess. Good setups make it look up prices and stock in your catalog and answer only from what it finds.
Will it replace my sales team?
It handles repetitive questions and simple orders. Complaints, bulk orders and unusual requests still need people, so plan for handover.
About the author
WhatsApp & F-commerce automation, Dhaka
The Dhaka team that builds SaleMag, the AI sales inbox for WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram used by online sellers in Bangladesh.