Ansible is known for its agentless architecture, which means it does not require a software agent to be installed on the target nodes it manages. This contrasts with tools like Puppet and Chef, which typically require an agent to be installed on each node. Ansible uses SSH or WinRM to communicate with the nodes, making it simpler and more secure as it reduces the attack surface and the overhead of managing agents. References: Comparison of DevOps tools including Ansible, Puppet, and Chef, as well as Ansible's official documentation.