Agentic Systems in the Real World

Introduction to AI Agents

Adel Nehme

VP of AI Curriculum, DataCamp

Best Practices Using Off-the Shelf Agentic Tools

$$

Best Practices Using Off-the Shelf Agentic Tools

Best Practices

$$

• Design useful prompts with context

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Design Useful Prompts with Context

Effective prompt patterns

• Detailed examples of what good looks like
• Context for the task being worked on

AI-assisted coding use-case: Updating code

• Detailed examples of what final code should look like
• Context of the original code, and why it needs updating

Best Practices Using Off-the Shelf Agentic Tools

Best Practices

$$

• Design useful prompts with context
• Understand the agent's capabilities and limitations

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Understanding Capabilities and Limitations

• What tools does it have access to?
• How up to date is the model information?

Best Practices Using Off-the Shelf Agentic Tools

Best Practices

$$

• Design useful prompts with context
• Understand the agent's capabilities and limitations
• Always verify your agent's output

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Always Verify Your Agent's Output

¹ DataCamp, https://www.datacamp.com/blog/ai-hallucination

Best Practices Using Off-the Shelf Agentic Tools

Best Practices

$$

• Design useful prompts with context
• Understand the agent's capabilities and limitations
• Always verify your agent's output
• Always be mindful of costs

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Always Be Mindful of Costs

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Best Practices Using Off-the Shelf Agentic Tools

Best Practices

$$

• Design useful prompts with context
• Understand the agent's capabilities and limitations
• Always verify your agent's output
• Always be mindful of costs
• Use AI agents responsibly

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Use AI Agents Responsibly

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Best Practices For Designing and Building AI Agents

$$

$$

Best Practices For Designing and Building AI Agents

Best Practices

$$

• Always design for human intervention

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Always Design for Human Intervention

Best Practices For Designing and Building AI Agents

Best Practices

$$

• Always design for human intervention
• Do you really need an agent?

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Do You Really Need an Agent?

Criteria for using AI Agents

1. Require complex decision-making
2. Require heavy reliance on unstructured data
3. Have difficult to maintain rules
4. Require adaptive problem solving

Examples of agentic use cases

1. Autonomous customer support systems
2. Coding assistants that can read code bases, provide updates, and implement them automatically
3. A deep research assistant that can synthesize research

Best Practices For Designing and Building AI Agents

Best Practices

$$

• Always design for human intervention
• Do you really need an agent?
• Always be mindful of costs

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Always Be Mindful of Costs

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Best Practices For Designing and Building AI Agents

Best Practices

$$

• Always design for human intervention
• Do you really need an agent?
• Always be mindful of costs
• Start simple and iterate

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Start Simple and Iterate

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Best Practices For Designing and Building AI Agents

Best Practices

$$

• Always design for human intervention
• Do you really need an agent?
• Always be mindful of costs
• Start simple and iterate
• Monitor everything

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Monitor Everything

¹ Image generated with GPT-4o

Let's Practice!

Introduction to AI Agents