No knows what an 'AI agent' is—but there's a growing consensus they aren't living up to the hype

A phone displaying a title saying "manus" and "the general AI agent." (Credit: Lam Yik—Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Hello and welcome to Eye on AI. In today’s edition…Companies experimenting with AI agents say the tech falls short of expectations; Nvidia announces its new chips and positions itself for the post-DeepSeek landscape; Elon Musk and Nvidia join the Microsoft-Blackrock AI fund; AI spammers are “brute forcing” the internet; and Foxconn emerges as a key player in the global AI race.

Hardly a day goes by without a tech company announcing a new AI “agent” it says will revolutionize workflows and unlock unprecedented efficiencies. But while the makers of these agents—companies like Salesforce, Amazon, Oracle, and tons of startups—are hyping them, some of their customers are growing skeptical that these tools can deliver, at least right now.