# What's the difference between RAG and an AI agent for support?

> RAG looks up relevant documents and writes an answer from them. An AI agent can plan, use tools, and take several steps, such as querying logs, reading code, and checking a customer's config, before it answers. RAG answers what's written down; an agent can investigate what isn't.

Canonical: https://www.decimal.app/glossary/ai-automation/rag-vs-ai-agents-for-customer-support · Last reviewed: 2026-09-23

RAG looks up relevant documents and writes an answer from them. An AI agent can plan, use tools, and take several steps, such as querying logs, reading code, and checking a customer's config, before it answers. RAG answers what's written down; an agent can investigate what isn't.

## When RAG is enough

- How-to and policy questions
- Product questions covered in docs
- Questions where the answer is the same for every customer

## When you need an agent

- Errors and bugs specific to one customer
- Issues introduced by a recent deploy
- Anything support would normally escalate to engineering

Decimal uses retrieval for documented answers and investigation for the rest. See [RAG](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/retrieval-augmented-generation) and [agentic investigation](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/agentic-investigation).

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