Agent may refer to:

Espionage, investigation, and law

*, spies or intelligence officers *

Law of agency The law of agency is an area of commercial law dealing with a set of contractual, quasi-contractual and non-contractual fiduciary relationships that involve a person, called the agent, who is authorized to act on behalf of another (called the pri ...

, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insurance policy owner ** Election agent, a person responsible for the conduct of a political campaign **

Free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

, a sports player who is eligible to sign with any club or franchise **

Literary agent A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers, film producers, and film studios, and assists in sale and deal negotiation. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwr ...

, an agent who represents writers and their written works **

Modeling agency A modeling agency is a company that represents model (person), fashion models, to work for the fashion industry. These agencies earn their income via commission, usually from the deal they make with the model and/or the head agency. The top agen ...

, a person or a corporation which represents fashion models **

Press agent In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization. It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always) via the media. The subj ...

, a professional publicist **

Foreign agent A foreign agent is any person or entity actively carrying out the interests of a foreign principal while located in another host country, generally outside the Diplomatic immunity, protections offered to those working in their official capacity fo ...

, a person who carries out the interests of a foreign country ** Political agent (disambiguation) **

Patent attorney A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing patent applications and o ...

, an attorney who represents clients in patent matters **

Real estate agent Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and age ...

, an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate **

Registered agent In United States business law, a registered agent (also known as a resident agent, statutory agent, or agent for service of process) is a business or individual designated to receive service of process (SOP) when a business entity is a party ...

, in the US, receives service of process for a party in a legal action ** Shipping agent, a person responsible for handling shipments and cargo **

Sports agent A sports agent is a legal representative (hence agent (law), agent) for professional sports figures such as athletes and coaches. They procure and negotiate employment and Testimonial, endorsement contracts for the principal (commercial law), at ...

, a legal representative for professional sports figures such as athletes and coaches **

Talent agent A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds work for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, dancers, and other professionals in various entertainm ...

or booking agent, a person who finds jobs for entertainment professionals ** Trade mark agent, a person who represents clients in trade mark matters **

Travel agent A travel agency is a private Retailing, retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related Service (economics), services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel supply chain, suppliers to offer different kin ...

, a retailer that provides travel and tourism related services *

Special agent In the United States, a special agent is an official title used to refer to certain investigators or detectives of federal, military, tribal, or state agencies who primarily serve in criminal investigatory positions. Additionally, some special ...

, an American criminal investigator or detective for example

Arts and entertainment

Fictional characters

* Agent (comics), a Marvel Comics character * Agent (''The Matrix''), a group of characters in the series * The Agents, superhuman characters in ''

Seven Samurai 20XX is a PlayStation 2 game released by Sammy Studios in 2004. Its story and concept are based upon Akira Kurosawa's 1954 movie ''Seven Samurai''. Rights for the production of the game were given by the Kurosawa production, with character designs by ...

Film and television

* ''The Agent'' (1922 film), featuring Oliver Hardy * The Agent (2010 film), a short film * ''Agent'' (film), a spy thriller film * ''Agent'' (TV series), a Polish reality competition

Music

* Agent (band), an American hardcore band from Long Island, New York *

Agents (Finnish band) Agents is a Finnish band formed in 1979, playing rautalanka, schlager and rock'n'roll music. The head figure and musical director of the band is solo guitarist Esa Pulliainen. History Founding of Agents Agents was founded in 1979 on the r ...

, a Finnish schlager/rock'n'roll band *

The Agents (Australian band) Jamie Francis "James" Griffin is an Australian singer-songwriter, poet, musician, playwright and broadcaster. His style is rock and country music, his work has been covered by other artists including The Black Sorrows and Lee Kernaghan. Griff ...

, led by James Griffin * "Intro: The Agent", by Rhymefest from '' El Che'' (2010) * "The Agent" (Little Man Tate song) (2006)

Other uses in arts and entertainment

* ''Agent'' (video game), a stealth action game

Science and technology

Biology and chemistry

Biological agent Biological agents, also known as biological weapons or bioweapons, are pathogens used as weapons. In addition to these living or replicating pathogens, toxins and Toxin#Biotoxins, biotoxins are also included among the bio-agents. More than 1,2 ...

, a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, or fungus used as a weapon * Chemical agent, used as a

chemical weapon A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as ...

Computing

* Agent architecture, a blueprint for software agents and control systems *

Agent-based model An agent-based model (ABM) is a computational model for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous agents (both individual or collective entities such as organizations or groups) in order to understand the behavior of a system and ...

, a computational model for simulating the actions and interactions of individuals * Agentic AI, autonomous artificial intelligence that can make decisions and act on those decisions on its own *

Intelligent agent In artificial intelligence, an intelligent agent is an entity that Machine perception, perceives its environment, takes actions autonomously to achieve goals, and may improve its performance through machine learning or by acquiring knowledge r ...

, an autonomous, goal-directed entity which observes and acts upon an environment *

Software agent In computer science, a software agent is a computer program that acts for a user or another program in a relationship of agency. The term ''agent'' is derived from the Latin ''agere'' (to do): an agreement to act on one's behalf. Such "action on ...

, a piece of software that acts for a user or other program *

User agent On the Web, a user agent is a software agent responsible for retrieving and facilitating end-user interaction with Web content. This includes all web browsers, such as Google Chrome and Safari A safari (; originally ) is an overland jour ...

, software that is acting on behalf of a user

Other uses

Agency (philosophy) Agency is the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment. It is independent of the moral dimension, which is called moral agency. In sociology, an agent is an individual engaging with the social structure. Notably, though, the primacy ...

, the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment *

Agency (psychology) In psychology, agency signifies the concept of a person's ability to initiate and control their actions, and the feeling they have of being in charge of their actions. The topic of agency can be divided into two topical domains. The first half of t ...

, an attribute of humans and non-human animals *

Agent (economics) In economics, an agent is an actor (more specifically, a decision maker) in a model of some aspect of the economy. Typically, every agent makes decisions by solving a well- or ill-defined optimization or choice problem. For example, ''buyers'' (c ...

, an actor and decision maker in a model *

Agent (grammar) In linguistics, a grammatical agent is the thematic relation of the cause or initiator to an event. The agent is a semantic concept distinct from the subject of a sentence as well as from the topic. While the subject is determined syntactically ...

, in linguistics, the thematic relation of a cause or initiator to an event *

Agent noun In linguistics, an agent noun (in Latin, ) is a word that is derived from another word denoting an action, and that identifies an entity that does that action. For example, ''driver'' is an agent noun formed from the verb ''drive''. Usually, '' ...

, a word identifying an actor, derived from a word denoting an action *

Cleaning agent Cleaning agents or hard-surface cleaners are substances (usually liquids, powders, sprays, or granules) used to remove dirt, including dust, stains, foul odors, and clutter on surfaces. Purposes of cleaning agents include health, beauty, removing ...

, a substance used to remove bad smells, clutter, dirt, dust, or stains on surfaces