The era of the simple chatbot is over. We are entering the age of the Autonomous Agent.
For the last two years, businesses have been obsessed with "chatting" to their data. RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) became the standard. But chatting is passive. You ask a question, you get an answer. Then you have to do the work.
Agentic AI flips this model. Instead of waiting for a prompt, an agent is given a goal. "Increase leads by 20%," "Reconcile these invoices," or "Monitor this server log."
The Shift to Agency
Agents have agency. They can:
- Plan: Break a complex goal into steps.
- Execute: Use tools (APIs, browsers, databases) to perform actions.
- Observe: See the result of their action.
- Correct: If the result isn't what they expected, they try a different approach.
This loop — Plan, Execute, Observe, Correct — is what separates a toy from an employee.
What This Means for Your Business
The businesses that adopt agentic AI earliest will have an exponential advantage. While competitors are still asking chatbots questions and copying answers into spreadsheets, agentic organisations will have software that executes entire workflows autonomously.
Imagine an agent that monitors your inbox, identifies supplier invoices, cross-references them against purchase orders, flags discrepancies, and drafts a response — all before you've had your morning coffee.
Getting Started
The key to successfully deploying agentic AI is starting with well-defined, repeatable processes. Look for tasks that:
- Follow a clear sequence of steps
- Involve data from multiple systems
- Currently require a human to copy-paste between tools
- Have clear success criteria
These are your quick wins. Start here, prove the ROI, then expand.