TED Talks Daily Everything you need to know about AI agents | Swami Sivasubramanian
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Nov 4, 2025 
Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of agentic AI at AWS, explores the revolutionary potential of AI agents in modern work. He distinguishes these autonomous systems from chatbots, explaining how they adapt and act on user goals. Swami highlights the importance of trust and developer experience for AI agents to thrive. With real-world examples, he showcases how agents can automate creative workflows and simplify software development. He envisions a future where AI agents become invisible assistants, unlocking productivity and creativity across various fields.
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From Ten Minutes To Tech Career
- Swami Sivasubramanian recalls limited access to a single school computer and 10–20 minutes a week of use.
- That scarcity inspired him to learn programming and shaped his path to a PhD and AWS work.
What Defines An AI Agent
- AI agents are autonomous systems that plan, reason, adapt, and act toward user-defined goals.
- They sense digital environments, convert high-level objectives into steps, and learn to improve over time.
Agents Versus Chatbots
- Chatbots suggest experiments, but agents can plan, write code, execute tools, and iterate on failures.
- Agents compress tasks that take weeks into hours by executing and improving workflows autonomously.