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Practical AI Agents and Agentic AI

Automation, Messaging, Voice, Payments and Creative Production

A few years ago, getting a computer to answer a customer, read an invoice, write an advert or take a phone call meant hiring a software team. Today a single person with a laptop, a free account and a clear idea can build a system that does all four. The systems that make this possible are called AI agents, and when they plan, review their own work and cooperate with other agents to reach a goal, the field calls it agentic AI. An agent is a program that uses a language model to understand a goal, decide what to do next, use tools such as a spreadsheet, a payment service or a messaging app, and keep going until the job is done or a person needs to step in. This book is about building those systems for real work. It is written for people who want to automate their own business, offer automation and AI production as a service, or work in a team that does. It covers the agents that run quietly in the background of a business, the ones that talk to customers on WhatsApp and on the phone, the ones that take payments, and the tools that let a small studio produce adverts, music and drama that once needed a crew.

26 chapters in 7 parts, 641 pages. Editor-in-Chief: Olusola Sayeed Ayoola. Published by RAIN, Ibadan, 2026.

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Contents

Open a chapter to see its sections. Each chapter ends with a QR code for its free assessment.

1Introduction to AI Agents
  • 1.1 From chatbots to agents
  • 1.2 How an agent works
  • 1.3 What agents can and cannot do
  • 1.4 How to use this book

Take the Chapter 1 assessment

2Language Models for Agent Builders
  • 2.1 Frontier, open and local models
  • 2.2 Choosing a model for a task
  • 2.3 Free tiers, credits and running models on your own computer
  • 2.4 Cost, speed and quality

Take the Chapter 2 assessment

3Prompting and Instructions
  • 3.1 Writing instructions an agent can follow
  • 3.2 Examples, roles and structured output
  • 3.3 Testing and improving prompts
  • 3.4 Guardrails

Take the Chapter 3 assessment

4Tools, Memory and Knowledge
  • 4.1 Function calling
  • 4.2 Short and long-term memory
  • 4.3 Retrieval-augmented generation
  • 4.4 The Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Take the Chapter 4 assessment

5Agentic AI
  • 5.1 AI agents and agentic AI
  • 5.2 Levels of autonomy
  • 5.3 Agentic design patterns
  • 5.4 Computer-use and browser agents
  • 5.5 Agents that talk to agents: A2A
  • 5.6 Long-running agents
  • 5.7 The Agents Rule of Two
  • 5.8 Evaluating an agent's path
  • 5.9 When not to use an agent

Take the Chapter 5 assessment

6Your First Agent in Python
  • 6.1 Calling a model through an API
  • 6.2 Adding a tool
  • 6.3 The agent loop
  • 6.4 Handling errors and limits
  • 6.5 Where this agent goes next

Take the Chapter 6 assessment

7Agent Frameworks
  • 7.1 OpenAI Agents SDK and Claude Agent SDK
  • 7.2 LangGraph and CrewAI
  • 7.3 Multi-agent systems
  • 7.4 Choosing, or not using, a framework

Take the Chapter 7 assessment

8Coding Agents
  • 8.1 Claude Code, Copilot agent mode, Codex and Gemini CLI
  • 8.2 Layout
  • 8.3 Rules
  • 8.4 Working safely with Git
  • 8.5 Reviewing what an agent writes

Take the Chapter 8 assessment

9Getting Started with n8n
  • 9.1 What workflow automation is
  • 9.2 Installing n8n
  • 9.3 Nodes, triggers and executions
  • 9.4 Credentials and connections

Take the Chapter 9 assessment

10Building Workflows
  • 10.1 Data, expressions and branching
  • 10.2 Webhooks and schedules
  • 10.3 Spreadsheets, e-mail and databases
  • 10.4 Debugging and error workflows

Take the Chapter 10 assessment

11AI Agents in n8n
  • 11.1 The AI Agent node
  • 11.2 Chat models, memory and tools
  • 11.3 Retrieval from your own documents
  • 11.4 Human approval steps

Take the Chapter 11 assessment

12n8n Projects for Business
  • 12.1 Lead capture and follow-up
  • 12.2 Invoices and payment reminders
  • 12.3 Customer support triage
  • 12.4 Reports and alerts
  • 12.5 Other automation platforms

Take the Chapter 12 assessment

13WhatsApp and Messaging Agents
  • 13.1 The WhatsApp Business Cloud API
  • 13.2 Templates, sessions and policies
  • 13.3 Building a WhatsApp agent with n8n
  • 13.4 SMS and USSD with Africa's Talking and Twilio

Take the Chapter 13 assessment

14Speech and Voice
  • 14.1 Speech to text
  • 14.2 Text to speech, including Nigerian languages
  • 14.3 Voice cloning
  • 14.4 Consent and misuse

Take the Chapter 14 assessment

15Voice Agents
  • 15.1 How a voice agent works
  • 15.2 Telephony with Twilio
  • 15.3 Voice agent platforms
  • 15.4 Building a phone receptionist

Take the Chapter 15 assessment

16Agents and Payments
  • 16.1 Paystack and Flutterwave APIs
  • 16.2 Payment links and webhooks
  • 16.3 An ordering and payment agent
  • 16.4 Fraud, refunds and human oversight

Take the Chapter 16 assessment

17Image Generation and Editing
  • 17.1 Image models and tools
  • 17.2 Consistent characters and brand style
  • 17.3 Product photography
  • 17.4 Free and low-cost options

Take the Chapter 17 assessment

18Video, Music and Sound
  • 18.1 Text and image to video
  • 18.2 Talking heads and lip sync
  • 18.3 Music, jingles and sound effects
  • 18.4 Editing the final cut

Take the Chapter 18 assessment

19Producing Adverts with AI
  • 19.1 The brief and the script
  • 19.2 Storyboard and visuals
  • 19.3 Voice-over and music
  • 19.4 From draft to finished advert

Take the Chapter 19 assessment

20Producing Drama and Series with AI
  • 20.1 Writing with AI
  • 20.2 Characters, scenes and continuity
  • 20.3 Dubbing into local languages
  • 20.4 Publishing a series

Take the Chapter 20 assessment

21Content Automation
  • 21.1 One idea, many formats
  • 21.2 A content pipeline in n8n
  • 21.3 Scheduling and publishing
  • 21.4 Measuring results

Take the Chapter 21 assessment

22Deploying Agents
  • 22.1 Web apps and APIs
  • 22.2 Free and low-cost hosting
  • 22.3 Monitoring and costs

Take the Chapter 22 assessment

23Mobile Apps
  • 23.1 Turning an agent into an app
  • 23.2 Building Android apps with GitHub Actions
  • 23.3 Publishing to the Play Store

Take the Chapter 23 assessment

24Security and Reliability
  • 24.1 Prompt injection
  • 24.2 Least privilege and confirmation
  • 24.3 Keys and secrets
  • 24.4 Rate limiting and abuse
  • 24.5 Testing and evaluating agents

Take the Chapter 24 assessment

25Law and Ethics
  • 25.1 The Nigeria Data Protection Act
  • 25.2 Deepfakes, voices and likeness
  • 25.3 Copyright and platform rules

Take the Chapter 25 assessment

26Building a Career with AI Agents
  • 26.1 Services and pricing
  • 26.2 Finding clients
  • 26.3 Building a portfolio
  • 26.4 Working ethically

Take the Chapter 26 assessment

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