AI agents have different components that make up their body or software, each with its own capabilities.

1. Sensors: let the agent sense its surroundings to gather percepts (inputs from the world: images, sounds, radio frequencies, etc.). These sensors can be cameras, microphones, or antennae, among other things. For software agents, it could be a web search function or a tool to read PDF files.

2. Actuators: help the agent act in the world. These can be wheels, robotic arms, or a tool to create files in a computer.

3. Processors, control systems, and decision-making mechanisms: compose the "brain" of the agent. I've bundled these together as they share similar functions, but they may not all be present in an AI agent system. They process information from the sensors, brainstorm the best course of action, and issue commands to the actuators.

4. Learning and knowledge base systems: store data that help the AI agent complete tasks; for example, a database of facts or past percepts, difficulties encountered, and solutions found.

Since the form of an AI agent depends so much on the tasks it carries out, you may find that some AI agents have all these components and others don't. For example, a smart thermostat may lack learning components, only having basic sensors, actuators, and a simple control system. A self-driving car has everything on this list: it needs sensors to see the road, actuators to move around, decision-making to change lanes, and a learning system to remember how to navigate challenging parts of a city.