A rational agent is an artificial intelligence agent that has clear preferences, models uncertainty, and acts to maximize its performance based on possible actions. Rational agents are designed to make the right decisions using techniques from game theory and decision theory for real-world problems. An AI agent is considered rational if it selects the best possible action in each situation to receive a positive reward, avoiding wrong actions that result in negative rewards. The rationality of an agent depends on factors like its performance measure, prior knowledge of its environment, available actions, and percepts.