AI Agents in Practice: Design, implement, and scale autonomous AI systems for production

Practical AI agent building, from first principles to production

AI Agents in Practice is a hands-on guide to designing autonomous AI systems that do more than chat. Valentina Alto focuses on the architecture behind modern agentic applications: how they think about goals, use tools, manage memory, and coordinate with other systems in real-world settings.

The book begins with the evolution of GenAI workflows and the rise of AI agents, then moves into the building blocks that make those agents useful in practice. That includes orchestration, memory and context handling, tool integration, external APIs, and the design choices that shape reliable behavior at scale.

What the book explores

• The shift from traditional AI workflows to agentic systems
• Different types of AI agents and how they are used
• Orchestrators, context management, and memory design
• Tool use, APIs, and external integrations
• Single-agent and multi-agent application patterns
• Emerging protocols and ethical guardrails for responsible deployment

Built for practitioners

This is a technical book for readers who want to understand how production AI agents are assembled and scaled. It is especially relevant for AI engineers, data scientists, software developers, and system architects working with LLM-based applications. A working knowledge of Python and machine learning concepts will help readers get the most from it.

Why it stands out

Rather than treating AI agents as a buzzword, the book anchors the subject in concrete design decisions: how to orchestrate tasks, how to preserve useful context, how to connect tools safely, and how to keep systems dependable as they become more autonomous. That makes it a strong fit for readers who want practical architecture guidance rather than high-level overviews alone.

At a glance

Format: Digital ebook
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Packt
Publication date: August 2025

For readers building with modern LLMs, AI Agents in Practice offers a structured path from foundations to implementation, with a clear focus on production reality.