Glossary · Updated July 2026

What is AI agent orchestration?

AI agent orchestration is the control layer that routes tasks across multiple AI agents — sequencing steps, running agents in parallel, passing outputs between them, and handling retries and failures. It turns a collection of individual agents into a single system that pursues a goal end to end.

Orchestration usually takes one of a few shapes: sequential (each agent hands off to the next), parallel (agents work at once and their outputs are merged), or hierarchical (a supervisor agent delegates to workers and assembles the result). The orchestrator owns the flow of control and the flow of data between agents.

"AI agent orchestration" and agentic orchestration are used near-interchangeably; the difference is emphasis. Orchestration names the infrastructure — the router and the flow. Agentic orchestration stresses the autonomy that flows through it. Either way, coordination is not accountability: routing a task decides who runs it, not what they may do or what they answer for.

How it relates to agent management

AI agent orchestration is the coordination layer inside AI agent management. Management wraps it with the parts orchestration omits — scoped permissions, durable memory, evidence-based review, and a complete audit trail.