Who should I follow to learn about AI agents?
Key takeaway
Andrew Ng and Harrison Chase are the people ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode recommend most for learning AI agents, and Andrew Ng is named in every answer set. Copilot recommends a different group led by Ilya Sutskever and Demis Hassabis. ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode credit Andrew Ng for agentic workflow patterns such as reflection, tool use, planning and multi agent collaboration, and Harrison Chase for LangChain and LangGraph agent architecture.
Mostly agree
Andrew Ng is the best person to follow for agentic workflows
Harrison Chase is a key voice for building agents
Where they differ
Builders or big names
Verdict
Four engines, ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and Copilot, name Harrison Chase and Andrew Ng among the people to follow, with Gemini and Google AI Mode putting Andrew Ng first. Copilot alone opens with Ilya Sutskever and Demis Hassabis.
What engines actually searched
The sub-queries each engine actually searched before answering.
Cited, but not mentioned
7 sites cite this answer without naming anyone
Full responses
5 of 5 engines that answered. Full stored text as captured, with dashes shown as hyphens. Nothing is summarised.
If you want to learn AI agents, I’d follow a mix of people who build agents, researchers who explain how they work, and practitioners who share real-world lessons - not just people posting AI news.
My recommendation is to start with a small list of 6–8 high-signal accounts, then learn by building alongside them.
1. The best people to follow
- Andrej Karpathy
Best for foundations
Excellent for understanding LLMs, how they reason, and how to think about building AI systems. Start here if you want to understand what happens under the hood.
- Harrison Chase
X: @hwchase17 · LangChain
One of the people to watch for agent architectures, tool use, orchestration, and production workflows. Particularly useful if you want to build agents in Python.
- Andrew Ng
X: @AndrewYNg · DeepLearning.AI
Great for practical AI engineering, agentic workflows, and understanding where agents are useful in business. A good choice for beginners and non-researchers.
- Simon Willison
Blog: simonwillison.net · X
Follow him for hands-on experiments, practical code, tool calling, and security issues such as prompt injection. Particularly good at separating useful techniques from hype.
- Anthropic
X: @AnthropicAI · Engineering blog
A strong source for agent design patterns, tool use, context engineering, and lessons from building agents that work reliably. Read its engineering articles, not just product announcements.
- OpenAI
X: @OpenAI · Agents developer guide
Follow for agent SDKs, tool integration, multi-agent orchestration, tracing, evaluations, and safety guardrails. Its official documentation is especially useful when you want to implement something.
- Jim Fan
X: @DrJimFan
Worth following for research and experiments involving autonomous agents, tool use, robotics, and agents that interact with digital or physical environments.
- Hugging Face
X: @huggingface · Agents tutorials
Follow for open-source agent frameworks, model experimentation, and tutorials that help you understand how agents are implemented beyond proprietary platforms.
2. The best resources to learn from them
Following people is useful, but these resources will help you turn what you learn into skills.
Start here: Building Effective Agents
Beginner to intermediate · Free
Read Anthropic’s guide to learn the difference between workflows and autonomous agents, and when each approach makes sense. Building Effective AI Agents \ Anthropic
Build your first agent
Hands-on coding
Follow the OpenAI Agents SDK tutorials to learn tool calling, agent handoffs, tracing, and guardrails. Agents
Learn agent orchestration
Intermediate · Python
Explore the LangChain and LangGraph learning guides for memory, multi-agent workflows, and agents that use external tools. Learn
3. Who should you follow based on your goal?
| If you want to… | Prioritize |
|---|---|
| Understand AI from the ground up | Andrej Karpathy, Andrew Ng |
| Build AI agents with code | Harrison Chase, OpenAI |
| Build reliable production agents | Anthropic, Harrison Chase |
| Explore open-source agents | Hugging Face |
| Keep up with research and emerging capabilities | Jim Fan, Andrej Karpathy |
| Automate business tasks and workflows | Andrew Ng, Anthropic |
4. My suggested learning routine
Spend 30 minutes a day:
- 10 minutes: Read posts from two or three people on your list.
- 10 minutes: Study one technical concept, such as tool calling, memory, retrieval, or multi-agent orchestration.
- 10 minutes: Build or improve a small agent.
Start with a simple research agent that searches for information, summarizes its findings, and provides source links. Then add memory, evaluation, and human approval before allowing it to take actions.
The most important principle: learn the fundamentals before chasing every new agent framework. Anthropic’s engineering guidance specifically recommends starting with the simplest design that works and adding complexity only when it provides a real benefit. Building Effective AI Agents \ Anthropic
Let me tailor the list to you
To learn about AI Agents - ranging from underlying architectures to practical implementation - following the right researchers, engineers, and educators on platforms like X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Substack, and YouTube can accelerate your learning curve significantly.
Here are the top people and organizations to follow, broken down by focus area:
1. Research & Foundational Thought Leaders
-
Andrew Ng (DeepLearning.AI): One of the best educators in AI. He frequently shares insights, short courses (such as agentic workflows and multi-agent systems with CrewAI), and breakdowns on why agents are the next frontier.
-
Harrison Chase (LangChain): As the creator of LangChain and LangGraph, Harrison is deeply embedded in agent architectures, state management, and multi-agent workflows. His feed is a goldmine for practical agent engineering.
-
Yann LeCun & Andrej Karpathy: While Karpathy focuses broadly on AI and education (and has done great deep-dives into autonomous systems and LLMs), following leading research minds helps you understand the theoretical limits and capabilities of agentic behaviors.
2. Framework Builders & Open-Source Experts
-
Joao Moura (CrewAI): Creator of CrewAI. His content focuses heavily on multi-agent collaboration, task delegation, and enterprise agent deployments. Mastering AI Agents: The 10 Best Free Courses, Tutorials ... - Medium
-
Jerry Liu (LlamaIndex): Great for insights into agentic RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), data integration, and workflows that allow agents to interact reliably with private data stores.
-
The Hugging Face Team (e.g., Clément Delangue, Ɐlexandre Wild): Essential for keeping up with open-source models, tool-use agents, and their dedicated agent courses.
3. Practical Builders & Creators
-
Rowan Cheung (The Rundown AI): Excellent for daily high-level news, trending agent tools, and practical use-cases sweeping the industry.
-
Dan Shipper & The Every Team: Great for practical, human-centric essays on using AI agents for real-world productivity and workflow automation.
Alternative Free Resources to Supplement Your Learning
If you want to move beyond social media feeds and dive into structured learning, consider these top-tier resources:
-
DeepLearning.AI Short Courses: Free, code-forward modules built specifically around agent design patterns and multi-agent frameworks.
-
Hugging Face Agents Course: A comprehensive community-driven curriculum covering code agents and transformers.
-
Microsoft's "AI Agents for Beginners": A fantastic 10-lesson video course taking you from concept to code. AI Agents for Beginners - Microsoft Learn
Are you looking to learn about AI agents from a high-level strategic/business perspective, or do you want to dive straight into coding and building them yourself?
To dive deep into the world of AI Agents - ranging from multi-agent frameworks to enterprise automation - following the right builders, researchers, and educators will keep you on the cutting edge.
Here are the top voices and where to find their insights:
-
- ** Andrew Ng** : As the founder of DeepLearning.AI, he offers some of the best conceptual breakdowns and short courses on agentic workflows, multi-agent collaboration, and practical implementation. Top AI Thought Leaders to Follow for Business - LinkedIn
-
** Harrison Chase** : As the co-founder and CEO of LangChain, his work and public updates focus heavily on agent orchestration, tool use, memory management, and enterprise app architecture.
-
João Moura : The creator of CrewAI, he is a primary voice to follow for multi-agent systems, role-playing autonomous agents, and collaborative team-based AI setups.
-
** Sam Witteveen** : A favorite among developers, his YouTube channel and social feeds provide hands-on, highly technical deep dives into agent frameworks, advanced reasoning loops, and coding implementations. Who to follow to stay most-informed re AI / the Singularity?
-
** Lilian Weng** : A researcher at OpenAI whose technical blog posts (such as her foundational breakdown on autonomous agent architecture) remain standard reading for anyone trying to understand the core mechanics of LLM-powered agents.
-
** Andrej Karpathy** : A prominent AI researcher whose commentary on foundational shifts, systems engineering, and modern agentic development ("vibe coding") offers a big-picture view of where autonomous systems are heading. Artem Rodichev's Post - LinkedIn
If you want to narrow this down, let me know:
- Are you looking for hands-on coding tutorials or high-level business/strategy insights?
- What framework (if any) are you currently exploring (LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, etc.)?
I can tailor these recommendations or point you toward specific starter projects.
Start with Andrew Ng for clear explanations of agent design patterns - planning, tool use, reflection, and multi-agent workflows. Follow Harrison Chase to learn how to build and orchestrate agents with LangChain and LangGraph, and Simon Willison for practical experiments and lessons from real-world use.(citegist.com)
If you want to dive into AI agents , it’s best to follow a mix of researchers, open‑source builders, educators, and consultants who are actively shaping the field. Here are some of the most influential voices right now:
🔬 Researchers & Lab Leaders
-
Ilya Sutskever – Co‑founder of OpenAI, now leading Safe Superintelligence (SSI) , focused entirely on building safe superintelligence. His perspective on scaling vs. research is reshaping how labs allocate compute.Top 10 AI Influencers of 2026 - KDnuggets
-
Demis Hassabis – CEO of Google DeepMind, driving multimodal AI and scientific discovery (AlphaFold, Gemini). His work bridges cutting‑edge AI with real scientific applications.Top 10 AI Influencers of 2026 - KDnuggets
-
Yoshua Bengio – Deep learning pioneer, now a leading voice on responsible AI research and agentic systems.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026
📚 Educators & Accessible Voices
-
Andrew Ng – Founder of DeepLearning.AI and Coursera, known for making AI education accessible. He emphasizes practical AI adoption and agentic education at scale.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026Top 20 AI Experts, Engineers & Researchers (2026)
-
Fei‑Fei Li – Stanford professor and co‑director of the Human‑Centered AI Institute, focusing on computer vision and human‑aware AI.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026Top 20 AI Experts, Engineers & Researchers (2026)
-
Cassie Kozyrkov – Former Chief Decision Scientist at Google, specializing in decision intelligence and enterprise AI adoption.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026
⚙️ Open‑Source Builders (Agent Frameworks)
-
Harrison Chase – Creator of LangChain , one of the most widely used frameworks for building AI agents.Best AI Agents Consultants for 2026: Top 8 Ranked
-
Jerry Liu – Founder of LlamaIndex , another key open‑source tool for agentic AI development.Best AI Agents Consultants for 2026: Top 8 Ranked
-
Thomas Wolf – Co‑founder of Hugging Face, advancing open‑source generative AI and agent tooling.Top 20 AI Experts, Engineers & Researchers (2026)
🧭 Consultants & Practitioners
-
Paul Okhrem – Advisor to CEOs on AI agent deployment, focusing on governance, risk, and production‑level credibility.Best AI Agents Consultants for 2026: Top 8 Ranked
-
Ethan Mollick – Wharton professor, translating AI into practical business contexts and agentic adoption strategies.10 Trustworthy AI Thought Leaders Worth Following in 2026
👉 If your main interest is hands‑on building of AI agents , I’d recommend following Harrison Chase (LangChain) and Jerry Liu (LlamaIndex). 👉 If you want big‑picture strategy and safety , keep up with Ilya Sutskever and Demis Hassabis. 👉 For accessible learning and practical adoption , Andrew Ng and Cassie Kozyrkov are excellent starting points.
Would you like me to curate a list of their best platforms to follow (Twitter, LinkedIn, newsletters, podcasts), so you can plug directly into their updates?
