  AGB stars are ideal IR targets because they are cool and bright. Most of them
escaped detection in optical or shallow IR surveys in the eighties contributing
to the puzzling missing number of AGB stars with respect to theoretical
predictions and former stages of evolution. Observations and AGB models have
advanced steadily in the following decades providing us with an almost complete
view of the AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds. Their properties are tracers of
structure and chemistry across galaxies. New surveys will be able to fill-in
the gaps, in terms of sensitivity and monitoring, providing new constraints for
the formation and evolution of the Magellanic Clouds.
