[Ep017] Agents, MCPs, and Skills: The 3 Building Blocks of AI Agents Explained

 What if your AI agents were architected as intentionally as your Salesforce org? In this episode of Cirrius Talk, Greg Banks sits down with Tim and Gavin to break down a practical mental model for AI agent architecture—agents as decision-makers, MCP servers as shared capabilities, and skills as reusable workflows. They unpack when a use case calls for a new skill, a new MCP, or a brand-new agent (or even a multi-agent pattern), plus the anti-patterns to avoid as you scale. By the end, leaders walk away with questions they can use to design a secure, future-ready AI workforce across their Salesforce ecosystem. TakeawaysAgents are the “brains,” not the plumbing—let them decide what to do when, not handle low-level integration. MCP servers are your superpowers: secure, reusable connections into Salesforce, Jira, ERPs, and document stores that every agent can tap. Skills are where your workflows live—think “mini playbooks” that orchestrate steps and call MCPs to actually get work done.Use the five-question test (audience, decision space, context, security, triggers) to know when a new agent is justified. Multi-agent patterns shine when a “hub” agent needs to reason across multiple domain-specific agents—sales, service, finance, delivery, and more. Build from the bottom up (capabilities and MCPs), but design from the top down (business decisions and outcomes). Cirrius Solutions brings AI-shoring to Salesforce: 100% US-based teams, 50% military veterans and spouses, all AI & Data Cloud certified. Recommended LinksGavin Franklin on LinkedInTim Harting on LinkedInGreg Banks on LinkedInCirrius SolutionsCirrius BlogMental Model DiagramJason Fowler MusicSend questions to [email protected]