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Volume I · For software people new to AI
Understanding Agentic AI Systems
From GenAI to Agentic AI, Explained Simply (A Beginner's Guide)
For software people new to AI. Assumes you can read code, no AI background required.
About the book
Understanding Agentic AI Systems
From GenAI to Agentic AI, Explained Simply (A Beginner's Guide)
A plain-language introduction to agentic AI for software people who are new to AI. It teaches one idea per chapter, in clear language with a real example, building a single project (an internal IT helpdesk assistant) from a plain chatbot into a real, fenced, tested agent. By the end the reader has an accurate working mental model of the whole field, not a memorized snapshot of current tools.
What you will learn
7 things you walk away with
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How AI evolved through four eras, and how agentic AI differs from generative AI.
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What a language model actually is, next-word prediction, and why it both works and hallucinates.
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The three building blocks: prompting, RAG, and structured output and tool calling.
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What makes something an agent: the think, act, observe loop.
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Memory, MCP, agentic coding, and when multi-agent systems help versus just cost more.
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How to make agents safe (guardrails, human-in-the-loop) and how to evaluate them.
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A hands-on capstone: building a tiny working agent yourself.
Table of contents
4 parts · 14 chapters
- 01 From AI to Agentic AI
- 02 What a Language Model Actually Is
- 03 GenAI vs Agentic AI: The Core Difference
- 04 Prompting: Talking to the Model Well
- 05 RAG: Giving the Model Knowledge It Never Learned
- 06 Structured Output and Tool Calling
- 07 What Makes Something an Agent
- 08 Tools, Memory, and Staying on Track
- 09 Agentic Coding: The Agent That Writes Software
- 10 Multi-Agent Systems, and an Honest Caveat
- 11 When Agents Go Wrong
- 12 How Do You Know It Is Working
- 13 Capstone: Build a Tiny Agent Yourself
- 14 Closing: Where to Go Next
After Volume I
Designing Enterprise Agentic AI Systems
Volume II · Practice
The senior follow-on once the basics click.
An Architect's Field Guide for Engineers
Read about Volume II →Newsletter
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