AI Glossary
Tool Use (AI)
What is Tool Use (AI)?
The ability of AI models to invoke external tools — web search, code execution, calculators, file systems, APIs — during a conversation to complete tasks that require information or actions beyond the model's intrinsic capabilities. Tool use is a key enabler of agentic AI systems. It is sometimes called 'function calling' in API contexts.
Example in practice
An AI assistant that runs a Python script to calculate compound interest and returns the result within a conversation — rather than guessing at the answer — is using tool use to extend its capabilities beyond language generation.
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