Artificial Intelligence Agents Aren't Matching Up to the Buzz

These tools are not gods nor James Bond, so stop with the breathless praise.

- Catherine Thorbecke

The biggest issue with the term artificial intelligence (AI) "agent" is that everyone seems to have a different definition for what it means.

Most often, it's used to describe an AI system that can act autonomously and work with outside applications to complete increasingly complicated tasks.

The buzziest example from Asia has been Manus, which went mega-viral earlier in 2025. But the term has also morphed into a marketing buzzword, slapped onto everything from products that surf the web on their own, to bots that will eventually achieve human decision-making skills — and could be coming for your job.

In China, where reports of a new agentic tool seem to emerge every week, some firms have been accused of labeling their products AI agents just to capitalize on the hype.

Against this confusing backdrop, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son — known for adding zeros to his bold aspirations — says that he plans to deploy one billion AI agents within his company by the end of the year.

Speaking at a business conference in Tokyo last week, Mr. Son waxed poetic about how these systems will be able to think for themselves, self-replicate and work 24 hours a day. They'll participate in meetings, make phone calls and send e-mails, he said, and will evolve on their own.

He envisioned a boon in productivity. A comparison he used was to give workers the power of Senju Kannon, a Buddhist figure with a thousand arms and eyes.