What is agentic AI?

Agentic AI explained

Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) can be characterized as a form of AI that can function autonomously, making choices and actions without the need for human intervention.

Agentic AI is different from AI chatbots, which leverage generative AI (GenAI) to produce replies based on a single interaction, such as when an end user inputs a query and the chatbot leverages natural language processing to respond. Agentic AI leverages machine learning (ML) and reinforcement learning (RL) to quickly solve complex, often multi-step problems. It demonstrates sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning and the capacity to flexibly learn, problem-solve, and adapt to changing environments.

In the article, Agentic AI: The Next Frontier of AI Power, Dr. Phong Nguyen writes that agentic AI “may be a more powerful phenomenon [than generative AI]”¹ and that it “[could be] stage three of [the] five stages in the development of AI”.¹ Dr. Nguyen states that while GenAI has produced a dynamic shift in how we create, Agentic AI may cause the next big change due to “its ability to automate complex processing tasks via the ability of multiple agents to autonomously learn, adapt, and make decisions to accelerate and automate decision-making and problem-solving”.¹

AI vs. generative AI vs. agentic AI

The three distinct but related types of AI are traditional AI or general AI, GenAI, and agentic AI.

General AI commonly works to perform a wide variety of tasks in the same manner that an end user might perform them. 

True to its name, GenAI is designed for content generation and responds to prompts to create text, images, or code. It produces human-like outputs based on patterns learned from the available data. Examples of GenAI programs and applications include chatbots, text-to-image generators, music composers, such as ChatGPT or DALL-E. 

While GenAI is frequently used for content creation, agentic AI is often leveraged for decision-making, performing tasks, and working towards achieving goals or objectives.  Because of its ability to learn from experience and adapt to changing environments, agentic AI is leveraged for programs and applications for robotic process automation, autonomous vehicles, and more advanced customer service chatbots. 

What are the three waves of AI?

Agentic AI is widely considered to be the third wave of AI. In the Forbes article The Third Wave Of AI Is Here: Why Agentic AI Will Transform The Way We Work, Silvio Savarese states that “The first wave was really predictive AI”² which enabled businesses to forecast trends and make data-driven decisions. The second wave was GenAI, which gave end users “[the ability to] generate content and allow conversations with humans".² We are entering the third wave with agentic AI, which has us “[using] agentic AI to automate entire tasks and perform actions on our behalf”.²