The race to build more autonomous and intelligent coding assistants is heating up, with Google entering the fray through its newly launched agentic programming tool, Jules. Pitched as a direct competitor to Claude Code from Anthropic, Jules reflects a growing industry push toward agentic AI—a paradigm where AI systems are capable of initiating, reasoning, and executing tasks with minimal human input.
While traditional code assistants respond to prompts and await further instruction, agentic AI takes things a step further by working proactively. These AI tools can break down broad objectives into actionable steps, choose appropriate tools for execution, and iterate independently until they reach a solution. Both Jules and Claude Code embody this shift.
What Is Agentic Coding?
Agentic coding refers to programming environments powered by AI agents that can act semi-autonomously. Instead of requiring developers to issue line-by-line commands or follow a rigid prompt-response structure, these tools aim to reduce friction in software development. They analyze user goals, autonomously plan execution paths, and even correct or optimize code without explicit instructions.
This marks a departure from traditional copilot-style assistants, offering a more flexible, intelligent, and interactive coding experience.