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RAG vs AI agents — when to use each
RAG vs AI agents is the buyer split between grounded answers on your documents and multi-step software that acts in tools under rules. Australian teams often ask for a “chatbot” when they need one of these — or both stacked. This guide keeps the decision commercial and reduces chat-widget cannibalisation of Agents and RAG pages.
Money pages: RAG & knowledge assistants → and AI agent developers Australia →. Pair with agent vs chatbot → and automation vs agents →.
Choose RAG when the job is grounded answers
- Staff or customers need explanations from approved SOPs, policies or product docs.
- Citations and permissions matter more than writing back to CRM or ERP.
- You can name a corpus and an audience — and define “good answer” with sample questions.
- Escalation to a person is enough when confidence is low.
Plain-English primer: What is RAG? →. Commercial delivery: RAG & knowledge assistants →.
Choose agents when the job is actions
- Work spans tools: read CRM → draft → wait for approval → write back.
- Branching, exceptions and audit trails matter more than a single reply.
- You need stop conditions, roles and human approval for high-impact writes.
- Deterministic automation may cover parts — agents earn their keep on ambiguity.
Related decision frames: AI agent vs chatbot → · automation vs agents → · agents practice →.
When you need both (RAG + agents)
Many production builds retrieve from docs then act. RAG grounds the agent; the agent owns tools and writes. Start with the harder constraint — permissions and citations, or write safety — and sequence Scope accordingly rather than buying a generic chat SKU.
- Policy answer → create ticket with the cited source attached.
- SOP lookup → draft an email → human approve → send.
- Internal knowledge → propose a change → wait for role-gated write.
Avoid chat-bot cannibal
A thin “chatbot developers” brief often hides RAG (answers) or agents (actions). Brief the outcome, corpus and tools — not the widget. If you only need FAQ on a help centre, say so; if you need CRM writes, say so. That keeps RAG → and Agents → as the commercial destinations instead of a catch-all chat page.
How to brief us
Say whether success is an answer someone reads, a change in a system, or both. Name the corpus, tools, who may approve writes, and one golden path. Use AI business audit → when the map is fuzzy; Scope → or Contact → when it is clear.
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Ready to pick RAG, agents or both?
Tell us the outcome, corpus and tools. We will recommend RAG, agents, automation — or a stacked design — without selling a generic chat widget.