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Just as business leaders accept that generative AI should be taken seriously, a new sheriff is taking the business world by storm. It is called Agentic AI.
Agentic AI puts employees in the backseat while automation makes decisions and takes action. Think of it as a highly advanced decision-making process that requires minimal human intervention.
Futurists predict that 2025 will be the year that Agentic AI goes mainstream. Are they right? We explore how Agentic AI works and why it’s shaping up to be one of the big tech buzzwords businesses — and employees — need to be careful of.
Key Takeaways
- Agentic AI is expected to take Generative AI and turbo-charge it.
- Unlike generative AI, Agentic AI doesn’t rely on prompts, acting independently to achieve business objectives.
- The proactive form of AI is likely to change how healthcare, customer service, and manufacturing industries work.
- Workplaces will get autonomous decision-making with minimal human input.
- Forecasters like Gartner predict that Agentic AI will be one of the top trends in 2025.
What is Agentic AI?
In short, Agentic AI can analyze data across an organization before developing and executing future strategies, and it is the closest we have come to the type of artificial intelligence (AI) that businesses have been waiting for.
Rather than waiting around for human prompts, Agentic AI uses adaptive decision-making to work through problems or situations and take the action needed to reach its objective without needing to ask a human.
The technology can follow multi-step processes and independently analyze the information given by a customer before finally choosing the best course of action.
Reinforcement learning (RL) means that Agentic AI can improve its performance and learn from previous interactions to refine its decision-making processes.
The Difference Between Generative AI and Agentic AI
| Aspect | Generative AI | Agentic AI |
|---|---|---|
| Key Feature | Requires clear instructions and prompts | Works autonomously, makes decisions independently |
| Example Usage | Summarizes content, generates images, responds to prompts | Executes complex workflows with minimal intervention |
| Dependency on User Input | High – needs detailed requirements | Low – operates with less need for user direction |
| Primary Function | Generates content based on user input | Manages tasks and decisions autonomously |
| Type of AI Interaction | Instruction-based | Independent and decision-driven |
If you get it right, services like ChatGPT will create a quick summary of long-form content or an hour-long Zoom meeting. Or it will listen patiently to your request and create an image based on your detailed requirements.
But ultimately, you always have to provide clear instructions for what you need.
Agentic AI is more than a regurgitation machine serving up a side dish of words. This more independent and sophisticated AI cousin confidently works autonomously, making decisions and executing complex workflows without being too needy for human intervention.
Why is Agentic AI a Big Deal?
In 2024, many businesses needed help finding the elusive ROI from their expensive AI projects.
Gartner predicts that Agentic AI will be one of the top strategic trends in 2025 and projects that adoption will pave the way for AI agents to execute around 15% of work decisions by 2028.
Considering it’s sitting at around 0% in 2024, this would be a dramatic improvement and will go a long way to finally answering the ROI question that has plagued AI projects.
Getting the most from Agentic AI will require business leaders to think bigger than increasing productivity. For example, data analysis across the entire organization could also provide leaders with greater organizational awareness and the ability to proactively prevent problems.
Agentic AI in the Workplace
The big players in enterprise software, such as Microsoft (Copilot Studio), Salesforce (Agenforce), Google, and SAP, are all betting on agentic AI being a big hit.
The opportunities are endless.
Agentic AI can go far beyond basic support:
- Healthcare: Imagine AI bots providing real-time, personalized support to healthcare providers. They could monitor patient conditions and adjust treatment plans on the fly.
- Customer service: Picture a 24/7 support team that doesn’t need a payroll, works in multiple languages, and learns from thousands of previous calls and documents to answer the next question in seconds.
Agentic AI is not just reactive; it’s proactive. Think about:
- Logging and resolving customer issues automatically.
- Highlighting important trends and reports.
- Offering tailored recommendations and offers — all with a personalized touch.
Take fintech company Klarna, for instance: they shifted two-thirds of customer service to an AI chatbot, which delivered the same customer satisfaction score as human agents and solved issues in an average of just 2 minutes, compared to 11 minutes for humans.
This just touches the tip of the iceberg — basic industries (think manufacturing, mining, agriculture) are rapidly becoming tech industries, and you can see a world where AI oversees a large portion of production, relying on humans (or robots) to carry out the manual work.
Perhaps more invisibly, Agentic AI is likely to find its way into our stores and apps, providing a tailored experience across every touchpoint. There is also an opportunity for Agentic AI to unlock insights hidden across scattered feedback forms, online reviews, and social media mentions.
The Bottom Line
AI is sold as a collaborative partner or copilot that frees up staff to focus on more value-added activities. However, let’s be clear: many businesses in the past have justified significant tech investments as an opportunity to reduce labor costs.
Like any revolution before, there will be pain — it also opens up a wave of complexities around autonomy, intelligence, and human oversight.
Either way, be aware this might be the next oncoming storm.
