{"slug": "is-an-agent-with-tools-the-only-valid-llm-application", "title": "Is \"An agent with tools\" the only valid LLM application?", "summary": "A Hacker News post questions whether 'an agent with tools' is the only valid LLM application, citing Brex's CEO's stance, and argues for end-to-end workflows that require minimal user feedback, despite acknowledging the need for conversable agents when output accuracy is uncertain.", "body_md": "Brex's CEO said this and I understand where he comes from, but is there a place for end to end workflows in LLM based applications? At the end of the day I agree that cutting edge software should be fully usable by agents, but I can't decide if every product should be an agent. I personally hate the UX of most agentic applications. I have this fantasy of future products where I can simply enter input X and get output Y without having to give feedback on every little thing. Of course when you're designing something it needs to be a process, but what if I can tell my phone to \"buy dinner\" and it just does it without bothering me at every step? What if it was just good enough? I think a conversable agent is necessary as long as the application is unsure of the accuracy of the output, but I wonder if the UX of LLM applications could be more like a rich person fixing their car, like here is my situation, just do what you need to do and don't bother me.\n\nComments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49484000](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49484000)\n\nPoints: 1\n\n# Comments: 0", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-an-agent-with-tools-the-only-valid-llm-application", "canonical_source": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49484000", "published_at": "2026-08-28 20:41:23+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-28 20:48:33.349069+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-agents", "large-language-models"], "entities": ["Brex"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-an-agent-with-tools-the-only-valid-llm-application", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-an-agent-with-tools-the-only-valid-llm-application.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-an-agent-with-tools-the-only-valid-llm-application.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/is-an-agent-with-tools-the-only-valid-llm-application.jsonld"}}