Explainer Distinguishes LangChain, Generative AI, AI Agents, and Ollama

A DEV Community glossary post clarifies how several AI terms relate to one another. It explains that LangChain is an open-source framework for connecting large language models to external data and tools, rather than an agent itself. Generative AI is described as producing text or code from prompts without taking actions, while AI agents are given goals and can loop through tools to act and correct course. The piece also distinguishes Ollama, which runs models like LLaMA and Qwen locally, as operating at a different layer of the software stack. It closes with an example project using retrieval-augmented generation to answer queries from regulatory circular documents.