What's an Agent? General: An agent is something/someone that acts on the behalf of the party they are representing. This is also true for Software Agents. Software Agents are pieces of software that act on the behalf of the party they are representing. Technical: Agents are active objects; an object, from the Object Oriented Programming Paradigm, encapsulates data and procedures while active describes that the agent is its own process or thread. These active objects can be programmed with beliefs, desires and intentions and these programs will then act on their beliefs, desires and intentions. (Intentional Systems) Introduction to Agents What's an Agent? An Annotated Bibliography of Software Agent Technology (PDF) For instance, a Software Agent will search the Internet for interesting Websites, news articles, or for the lowest advertised price for an item we are interested in. This same idea can be applied to companies. Agents will represent companies on the Internet and act in the best interest of the company. The Agent will send out request for bids to Agents representing other companies and accept the best bid based on pre-programmed criteria. This is why Agent Technologies are the future of the Internet.