Can you have Agents without real memory?

I've been really thinking about use cases for agents and it feels like there's a glaring hole as soon as I start applying any kind of architecture.

I did some searching but I couldn't find anything that really fits.

It seems like LLMs have very basic memory in the chat window because you're just sending the chat when you ask the next question.

Open AI and open web UI seem to have some kind of real memory. But that seems very rudimentary and not topic specific. I could be wrong.

It seems like you need a memory system, something that understands the current conversation goes into a database of your conversations and replies and synthesizes that data and applies that to the next question instead of the entire chat or maybe an addition to.

I have written a couple of prototype RAG systems, but they seem to be good at document search and retrieval. That's not really memory.

This seems to be something different. Very similar to human memory that's missing.

Break chats into smaller chunks

Save key points for later use

Organize memory by conversation topic

Retrieve only relevant stored info

Update memory during conversations

I really don't think I'm ever going to want an agent that's just another GUI Android app, I just want to talk to my phone and it'd be smart and can remember everything we've already researched and any research I've plugged into it and the context of conversations we've had.

Balance context length and speed