What does 'orchestrating' multiple AI agents mean?

Orchestrating multiple AI agents means coordinating several distinct AI steps into one connected workflow, where each model handles a specific part of a larger task, such as one planning an approach, another searching for information, and another writing the final output, with results passed along automatically between them. This lets AI tackle multi-step jobs that a single model working alone would struggle to complete reliably in one pass.

Teaching an AI to conduct a literal symphony orchestra would involve music performance, an entirely unrelated and fanciful interpretation of the term. Turning AI models into physical robots would require embodying software in hardware, which is a separate field from chaining software agents together.

While this approach expands what AI can accomplish, it also introduces more points where something can go wrong, since an error made early in the chain can quietly cascade and affect every step that follows.