What are AI Agents, Really? › Functions as States in an Agent

Each function in an agent can be thought of as a state. A function might: - Call an LLM to interpret a prompt or summarize context - Use a tool to query a database or trigger an API - Execute control logic to branch, loop, or exit Each of these operations represents a discrete state. The result of that function determines the transition to the next state. This function-to-state mapping is what gives agents their modular structure and power.