The Differences Between Microservices and AI Agents

This article clarifies that microservices and AI agents are fundamentally different, despite both potentially using LLMs. It warns that treating an AI agent like a microservice leads to catastrophic security and infrastructure mistakes. The author explains how traditional microservices rely on pre-defined, hand-coded logic, fixed execution paths, and known dependencies, whereas AI agents interpret natural language intent and dynamically decide actions. Four key broken assumptions are outlined: intent declaration vs. interpretation, fixed paths, known APIs, and faux delegation. The article is relevant to IT/technology professionals building modern architectures.