From Prompts to Autonomous Systems: My Learning Journey in the AI Agents Intensive
Source: Dev.to
Introduction
This is a submission for the Google AI Agents Writing Challenge.
Before joining this course, I mostly viewed AI as a system that receives a prompt and returns an answer. Over five days, my thinking shifted toward seeing AI as goal‑driven, autonomous, and capable of acting over time — not just responding once.
Key Concepts that Impacted Me
- Agents don’t just answer — they plan and take action.
- Tool‑use expands the capabilities of AI beyond text generation.
- Memory matters. Long‑term and short‑term memory enable agents to adapt and improve.
- Multiple agents can collaborate to solve complex tasks more effectively than a single model.
These ideas helped me understand why agents represent the next step beyond traditional prompt‑response AI.
Mental Model for Designing Agents
Goal → Plan → Act → Observe → Improve
Instead of thinking about “better prompts,” I now consider:
- What is the agent’s objective?
- What tools can it use?
- How does it evaluate its own progress?
- How can memory shape behaviour over time?
This mindset shift was the biggest takeaway for me.
Final Challenge Project
I built an agent that helps students:
- Plan topics
- Track study progress
- Generate quizzes for revision
The agent behaves like a personal study partner instead of a one‑time chatbot. Implementing this reinforced my understanding of:
- Creating the agent loop
- Designing clear tasks and roles
- Persisting memory for long‑term use
It was a simple project, but it helped me apply agentic thinking to a real workflow.
Looking Ahead
The course gave me the confidence to design systems where AI takes initiative rather than waiting for instructions. I’m excited to continue exploring:
- Multi‑agent collaboration
- Self‑evaluating agents
- Memory‑augmented agents
- Real‑world APIs and tool integrations
Agentic AI feels like a preview of the future, and I’m glad I took the first step through this intensive.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Google, Kaggle, and the community for the opportunity and resources. 🙌