You might have heard of AI agents – but what’s agentic AI?
An increasingly popular and impactful AI capability, agentic AI can be found in agents, systems, and frameworks across industries.
Let’s dive into what agentic AI is, how it works, and how organizations use it.
What is Agentic AI?
Agentic AI refers to software capable of autonomous decision-making, often designed to achieve specific goals with minimal human intervention.
These systems make decisions in response to changing conditions using context awareness, reasoning, and learning.
Agentic AI is commonly seen in virtual assistants, business automation, and autonomous vehicles.
Agentic AI vs AI Agents
Agentic AI and AI agents are closely related – agentic AI describes the capability, while AI agents are a specific implementation of that capability.
So while agentic AI is a broader concept of autonomy and action, AI agents are software programs that embody that concept.
However, agentic AI can exist in formats beyond AI agents, like integrated systems, frameworks or even large-scale platforms.
Agentic AI vs. Gen AI
While distinct AI capabilities, agentic AI and generative AI (AI that generates text, images, music, code, etc.) often work together.
Agentic AI refers to a program with autonomous decision-making, and some of these decisions might include generation. For example, agentic AI systems might use gen AI to:
- Craft personalized marketing messages
- Share dynamic product recommendations through conversational AI
How Does Agentic AI Work?
Agentic AI combines perception, reasoning, and action to operate independently.
It starts by collecting information from its environment, such as text, images, or user inputs. Using tools like natural language processing (NLP) or pattern recognition, it interprets this data to understand the context and identify the task at hand.
Then, it applies reasoning to evaluate options, plan the best course of action, and execute tasks – that might be responding to users, managing systems, or solving problems.
Afterward, it monitors results and learns from feedback, improving its performance over time.
This cycle of perceiving, planning, acting, and learning enables agentic AI to handle complex tasks and adapt to new challenges with minimal human oversight.
Agentic AI Use Cases
Agentic AI is incredibly versatile. When paired with a flexible platform, its potential is limited only by creativity.
Here are a few of the most common ways businesses are levelling up their enterprise chatbots with agentic AI:
Customer Support Automation
You’re probably familiar with old-school customer support chatbots, but agentic AI can also propel complex customer systems.
Unlike traditional bots that rely on rigid scripts, agentic AI adapts dynamically to user needs. By understanding context and intent, it delivers personalized solutions, streamlining customer interactions and enhancing satisfaction.
They’re often used to:
- Resolve issues autonomously
- Escalate complex problems to human agents (with context)
- Analyze customer interactions to identify trends
Personalized Marketing
Agentic AI is designed to enhance efficiency across the sales funnel, including AI lead generation, lead qualification, follow-ups, and booking demos.
It can also play a key role in the emerging sphere of chatbot marketing by taking simple conversational AI up a notch – it analyzes customer interactions to refine targeting strategies and optimize engagement efforts, all without human input.
Sales Lead Management
There are plenty of ways to use AI in sales. Agentic AI can combine the best of them.
It can enhance sales pipelines by qualifying, prioritizing, and nurturing leads autonomously. Agentic systems can analyze engagement data to identify high-value prospects and ensure timely follow-ups – tying back into the personalized marketing funnel.
Agentic AI can be used to:
- Score leads based on engagement and potential value
- Send personalized follow-ups via email or chat
- Notify sales teams of high-priority opportunities
Healthcare Assistance
In healthcare, agentic AI can streamline administrative and clinical processes. It can schedule appointments, triage patients based on symptoms, and even assist with medical coding.
Finance and Risk Management
The best finance chatbots are now agentic.
Agentic AI helps automate simple tasks and provide more in-depth information to help employees make data-driven decisions. It can also:
- Flag suspicious transactions for review
- Analyze market or client data for recommendations
- Automate compliance checks and expense reporting
- Providing insights into trends to improve decision-making
Content Moderation
Scanning social media channels, identifying target content, and taking action (to delete, respond, or track user sentiment) are well within the ability of agentic AI systems. Let employees handle the complex interactions, while an agentic system takes care of the rest.
HR Automation
Using an HR chatbot is an easy way to let HR reps focus on high-level tasks.
Agentic AI simplifies HR operations by automating repetitive tasks like screening resumes, scheduling interviews, and guiding new hires through onboarding.
They can even handle approving and booking vacation days or creating employee schedules.
Types of Agentic AI
There are plenty of ways to apply agentic AI. Here are 5 of the most common types of agentic AI, including the real-world applications of AI agents and systems that they power.
1. Reactive Agentic AI
Definition: Systems that respond to specific stimuli or situations without long-term memory or learning capabilities.
Examples: Chatbots handling predefined queries, recommendation systems.
Reactive agentic AI excels at executing straightforward tasks with speed and precision. These systems are ideal for applications that require immediate responses based on known conditions, such as answering FAQs or suggesting products.
2. Deliberative Agentic AI
Definition: Systems that use reasoning and planning to make decisions, often considering long-term outcomes.
Examples: Autonomous vehicles navigating traffic, AI managing supply chains.
Deliberative AI employs logic and forecasting to manage complex tasks, ensuring decisions align with broader objectives. These systems are essential for applications that demand strategic planning and adaptability.
3. Interactive Agentic AI
Definition: AI designed to engage with humans or other systems, often in dynamic environments.
Examples: Virtual assistants, collaborative robots (cobots) in industrial settings.
Interactive agentic AI focuses on creating seamless interactions between humans and machines. These systems are crucial in environments where understanding and responding to user needs are central to success.
4. Adaptive Agentic AI
Definition: Systems that learn and improve over time through feedback and data, adjusting their behavior accordingly.
Examples: AI agents for personalized learning platforms, dynamic pricing systems in e-commerce.
Adaptive AI leverages data to refine its decision-making and behavior continuously. This type of AI thrives in scenarios where flexibility and improvement over time are critical to achieving optimal outcomes.
5. Multi-Agent Systems (MAS)
Definition: Networks of agentic AI working collaboratively or competitively to achieve shared or individual goals.
Examples: Swarm robotics, distributed AI systems for smart grids.
Multi-agent systems involve multiple AI entities interacting to solve complex, large-scale problems. They are highly effective in distributed environments where tasks can benefit from diverse perspectives or collaborative strategies.
Benefits of Agentic AI
Autonomous Decision-Making
Agentic AI takes the reins on repetitive or complex tasks, so your team doesn’t have to step in every time.
Increased Efficiency
By quickly analyzing data, making decisions, and acting on them, agentic AI helps businesses save both time and resources.
Scalability
Whether you’re managing 10 processes or 10,000, agentic AI keeps up effortlessly, adapting to growing demands without breaking a sweat.
Adaptability
Agentic AI doesn’t just follow a script – it adjusts to new information and changing conditions, ensuring it stays relevant and accurate.
Improved Problem-Solving
With the ability to reason and learn, agentic AI can tackle even the toughest challenges and come up with smart, creative solutions.
Cost-Effectiveness
By automating time-intensive tasks, agentic AI helps cut costs while making the most of your resources.
Enhanced User Experience
From customer support to marketing, agentic AI delivers personalized, responsive interactions that keep users engaged.
24/7 Availability
Unlike a human team, agentic AI never clocks out, offering round-the-clock service and productivity.
Deploy agentic AI in your organization
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It’s endlessly extensible, and integrates with any software or platform. It’s suited to use cases across any industry or department, from finance to HR.
With high security standards, a built-in library of integrations and templates, and autonomously intelligent bot building, Botpress is the best way to build agentic AI systems.
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