It's just function calling with a new name and a big push from the LLM provider, but this time it's in the right direction. Contrast with OpenAI's "GPTs", which are just function calling by another name, but pushed in the wrong direction - towards creating a "marketplace" controlled by OpenAI.

I'd say that thing you're feeling comes from witnessing an LLM vendor, for the first time in history, actually being serious about function calling and actually wanting people to use it.