Agent vs Character Controller

If I have an animal that is wandering around, should I do that using the AI Agent, or should I do it using the Character controller? I keep seeing both used and not sure when to use what?

 

If you need path finding - Agent. Agent have some build in movement, so it is not easy to override.
Anyway, path can be found be NavMesh static class and moved by CharacterController.

So - Agent moved by himself, CharacterController is moved by you.
It depends on how much code you want to write.

 

Hmm, okay, so would you say that assets on the store that use Character controllers for AI are doing it wrong?

 

No, they doesn't. You can use CaharacterController on top of NavMeshAgent, or any other AI.
You can use Move() method form NavMeshAgent or CharacterController (both has it). Or use CharacterController to move NavMeshAgent.