Agent Washing

Agent Washing is the deceptive marketing practice where companies falsely label traditional automation tools, simple chatbots, or rule-based systems as “AI Agents” to capitalize on market enthusiasm for agentic AI technology. Unlike genuine AI Agents that demonstrate autonomous reasoning, decision-making, tool usage, and adaptive behavior, agent-washed products typically follow predetermined scripts, lack true autonomy, and cannot handle complex, multi-step workflows. This practice misleads buyers into purchasing inferior solutions that cannot deliver the sophisticated capabilities of authentic agentic systems. Agent washing undermines market trust and creates unrealistic expectations, making it crucial for organizations to evaluate vendors based on actual autonomous capabilities, reasoning depth, and real-world performance rather than marketing claims.