RAG vs. Agentic RAG: Architecture, Tradeoffs, and How to Choose

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) has established its role by grounding language models in external data instead of relying on guesswork. However, classic RAG treats every query identically, leading to issues when a question requires more than one retrieval. The debate between classic RAG and agentic RAG centers on correctness, traceability, and resilience under production load.