Large telescopes and asymptotic giant branch stars

There are many ways in which observations with large telescopes are improving our understanding of evolution on the Asymptotic Giant Branch. Perhaps more importantly AGB stars also offer huge potential to probe the nature of low- and intermediate-mass populations over a very considerable range of distances and in a variety of environments. This review which is far from exhaustive, touches upon: the discovery of AGB stars in resolved stellar populations and their detailed investigation; the importance of abundances measurements - particularly those of technetium and lithium; the potential of kinematic studies and recent developments in interferometry. Finally the important role of AGB stars as probes of distant and unresolved populations is mentioned.