# Agentic RAG

> RAG where an agent actively plans searches, chooses sources, reformulates queries, and decides when it has enough evidence.

- Category: Retrieval & Grounding
- Stage: Rising
- Also called: Agentic retrieval, RAG agent
- Canonical: https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/agentic-rag

## Plain English

Instead of one lookup, the AI investigates.

## Example

A legal research agent searches cases, follows citations, rejects weak evidence, and summarizes the strongest precedent.

## Why it matters

Complex knowledge work often needs iterative retrieval rather than a single vector search.

## Related

- [RAG](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/retrieval-augmented-generation)
- [Reranking](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/reranking)
- [Evals](https://www.joelcsaji.com/ai-dictionary/evals)

## Sources

- [IBM: Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/retrieval-augmented-generation)
- [Anthropic: Building Effective Agents](https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-agents)