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Research foundations.
The state of the art behind our engineering.

Academic papers, theoretical frameworks and conceptual foundations that ground how Swoft builds AI agents and software architecture: Sheridan-Verplank autonomy levels, neurosymbolic engineering (Mastropaolo & Poshyvanyk FSE 2025), agent definitions (Russell-Wooldridge-Ferber), Conway's law, MCP, Deep Tech (BCG-BPI-Hello Tomorrow).

  • What is an AI agent? Returning to 70 years of academic research
    Schéma d'agent IA percevant son environnement et agissant dessus

    What is an AI agent? Returning to 70 years of academic research

    ChatGPT isn't an agent in the academic sense. Russell, Norvig, Wooldridge and Ferber have proposed for 30 years a demanding definition that most 2026 products don't meet. State of the question.

  • Multi-agent systems: from Ferber to executable Conway's Law
    Système multi-agents avec rôles organisationnels

    Multi-agent systems: from Ferber to executable Conway's Law

    Jacques Ferber wrote Multi-Agent Systems in 1995. Thirty years later, his organizational dimension — often forgotten by contemporary frameworks — becomes production-ready thanks to event-driven architecture.

  • What is Deep Tech? A rigorous definition and the fault lines
    Laboratoire de recherche scientifique illustrant la Deep Tech

    What is Deep Tech? A rigorous definition and the fault lines

    The term Deep Tech has covered everything and its opposite since 2014 — quantum, biotech, fusion, AI, blockchain. Let's go back to the canonical definitions of BCG, Hello Tomorrow and Bpifrance to distinguish what is from what isn't.

  • French Deep Tech in 2026: where the ecosystem stands
    Cartographie de l'écosystème Deep Tech français

    French Deep Tech in 2026: where the ecosystem stands

    Mistral, Pasqal, Aledia, Verkor, Diabeloop: France has more Deep Tech than most European countries but struggles to turn these gems into global champions. State of the ecosystem in 2026.

  • Why real AI agents in production are so rare in 2026
    Schéma des obstacles techniques entre démo et production pour un agent IA

    Why real AI agents in production are so rare in 2026

    Technical diagnosis of the four structural obstacles that block the transition from demo to real production. And what it takes to clear them.

  • MCP, the HTTP of AI agents, explained for CTOs in 2026
    Connexions entre un modèle de langage et plusieurs serveurs MCP

    MCP, the HTTP of AI agents, explained for CTOs in 2026

    The Model Context Protocol published by Anthropic in 2024 has become the de facto standard to connect LLMs to tools. Why it matters, how to adopt it, what to watch out for.

Other reading registers

A paper to discuss?
We read everything serious that gets published.

Swoft's R&D team monitors academic literature on AI agents, neurosymbolic engineering and software architecture. If a paper raises a question for you, we're happy to dig into it together.