How Function Calling Works and Why It Defines Useful AI Agents

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Function calling is a structured protocol that allows large language models to interact with external systems by outputting structured objects that name a function and supply arguments, rather than executing code directly. OpenAI formalized the specification in 2023, and it has since been adopted by Anthropic, Google, Meta, and most open-source model providers. The quality of a function-calling system depends heavily on well-written tool definitions, particularly clear descriptions that tell the model when to invoke a tool, not just what it does. Modern LLMs support parallel tool calling, which can reduce latency significantly when multiple independent data sources need to be queried simultaneously. However, parallel execution only applies when tool calls are genuinely independent; any dependency between tools forces a return to sequential processing.

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