AI_SLANG_ENTRY
Agentic RAG Meaning
RAG with an agent in the loop: the model can decide what to search, which chunks to inspect, when to try again, and how to use tools before answering.
What does Agentic RAG mean?
RAG with an agent in the loop: the model can decide what to search, which chunks to inspect, when to try again, and how to use tools before answering.
Agentic RAG means the retrieval process is not fixed in advance. The AI system can plan searches, inspect results, call retrieval tools, and refine context before producing an answer.
Origin and usage
Grew from retrieval-augmented generation as builders pushed beyond one-shot document lookup toward multi-step retrieval, planning, reflection, and tool use.
Source type: paper. Last checked: 2026-07-13.
Emerging technical term covered in Agentic RAG survey literature; implementation patterns differ across frameworks, so this entry describes the broad architecture.
Examples
- Plain RAG found one policy page; agentic RAG kept searching until it found the exception table.
- Agentic RAG is useful, but every extra retrieval step needs evals and permissions.