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Beyond Chatbots: The Core Idea of Agentic AI
AI Automation Consulting for Business Leaders in 2026 – So I was at a conference last week, speaking at a breakout session. There was a gentleman in attendance that approached me after the session and asked what my definition of Agentic AI was. I explained that I viewed a chatbot as similar to a very intelligent, and informative, librarian. The librarian is knowledgeable regarding a vast amount of information and is happy to guide you in the location of a book.
A personal research assistant on the other hand, will take your request for a report regarding the marketing strategies for your top 3 competitors for Q4, complete the research for the report, and deliver the completed report to you. The key aspect that is of greatest importance, regarding this definition, is that the AI system is proactive and goal-oriented, meaning it completes a series of steps to complete a task in the best manner possible.
AI Automation Consulting for Business Leaders in 2026
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A truly agentic AI system is a system that can reason, plan, and execute a series of steps in order to reach a goal.
This system can browse the web, collect information from social media accounts, analyze financial reports, and, in the end, even create a report for you based on the information that it has collected. For example, a system could be told to create a report for you on the marketing strategies of your competitors for the fourth quarter of the year. The system would browse the web, collect relevant information from various social media accounts, as well as financial reports, and put it all together in a comprehensive report that you can read.
How Agentic AI Actually Works in a Business Environtment
So how can we use this amazing new technology to complete tasks in a business environment? The first step is to make systems of work autonomous – i.e. to automate as much as possible the process of completing a complex workflow that currently is laboriously completed step by step by a human.
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The “Digital Employee” Concept
An AI Agent is best described as a Digital Employee or a Computer Program that takes on a Role in a Business or Organization. This Role can then be automatically monitored and managed by the computer program. As an example of this, an AI Agent could be given the Role of ‘Monitoring customer sentiment’.
The ‘Digital Employee’ – An Agent Tasked to Monitor Customer Sentiment on Social Media. This agent will proactively search social media sites for reviews and support tickets in which customers express sentiment towards your company and/or its products. If the sentiment detected is negative (for example, complaining about a new feature) then this agent can automatically create a high-priority ticket in your project managers in Jira and also send a notification to them on Slack. The agent could even collate together examples of negative sentiment found for you in a report.
Connecting the Dots: Multi-Agent Systems
Now, here’s where it gets really powerful. You can have multiple AI agents working together as a team. Imagine a “Sales Outreach” team of agents.
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One agent can search for leads on LinkedIn. Then, when it finds the right leads, it can pass them off to another agent that writes personalized email messages to those leads. Then, the third agent can schedule the email and follow up on the responses. This is an example of a fully automated system of work that can run 24/7 for a sales team.
The Real-World Impact: Why You Should Care by 2026.
This is not a current AI feature, but a future focus point for companies to develop in order to gain competitive advantages over the next few years.
Slashing Operational Inefficiencies
This sort of task automation has the ability to drive huge cost savings to businesses by automating away long winded, tedious processes that are done to-day in and out. Processes such as reconciling and paying invoices, employee on-boarding and even complex supply chain logistics for example.
Unlocking New Growth Opportunities
Agentic AI unlocks new growth opportunities for businesses. Markets and consumer behavior are constantly shifting and companies must be able to capitalize on emerging trends and opportunities. Using agentic AI to constantly analyze market data can identify micro-trends that a business can capitalize on in order to drive growth. Using agentic AI in order to manage hyper-personalized marketing campaigns is another example of how a business can unlock new growth opportunities. Individual customers can be managed by an AI agent that manages thousands of individual customers simultaneously. This AI agent adjusts the marketing campaign in real-time in order to maximize customer engagement.
A Quick Word of Caution
I can only repeat myself here: these powerful processes need to be set up and monitored with a lot of care and common sense. The borders must be clearly defined and there should be regular human controls put in place. Otherwise, the potential damage can be enormous.
FAQ
What is agentic AI in simple terms?
Agentic AI: The Simple Version
Agentic AI is a new term used to describe a powerful form of artificial intelligence that can independently take action to achieve a goal. The goal can be set by a human and then the AI can automatically create a plan of action and use different tools (such as a web browser or software application) to complete the task(s) needed to achieve the goal. This means that, unlike most current forms of AI, the AI is able to complete complex tasks automatically.
How is this different from regular AI like ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is primarily reactive whereas agentic AI is primarily proactive. Reactive AI processes information to answer questions or complete tasks whereas proactive AI independently plans, organizes, and acts to achieve a goal set by a human.
Is agentic AI the same as Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
It is not the same as RPA. RPA is very strong at automating around a lot of repetition in a single application, following a set of rules, etc. Agentic AI on the other hand is more dynamic and more intelligent. It can reason around things, adapt to changing circumstances, and perform a lot of different actions across a lot of different applications to reach a goal. In essence, Agentic AI is RPA with a brain.
What’s a real-world example of agentic AI today?
Many of the more advanced travel booking websites are now starting to use some form of agentic technology. For example, a travel booking website might say ‘Book a trip to Italy for under $2000 in May’. The AI system acts as an agent and starts to search for the best flights, hotels and activities to create the perfect itinerary for the user.
What are the biggest risks?
There are numerous risks to losing control to an AI agent. These include potential for error due to poor definition of objective or access to critical systems and processes. There are also obvious security and data privacy risks.
What does it cost to set up an agentic AI system?
This cost can vary from the price of a monthly subscription of a pre-built tool that allows agentic behavior, to the cost of developing a custom multi-agent solution to automate a core business process, and would likely involve hiring specialized AI consulting and development teams.
When will agentic AI become mainstream for businesses?
I believe that we are on the cusp of this new phase of technology and in 5 years time having an AI strategy, as part of your overall business strategy, will be standard for the mid-to-large-sized business that wants to remain competitive.
Conclusion
So there you have it for Agentic AI at a high level. Don’t get me wrong there is a lot more to learn here. But we have to start somewhere to take full advantage of all the automation opportunities that AI brings for us to perform work and grow a business. It’s time to move from AI being used as an assistant to more of a partner in all the things we do in our businesses.
Agentic AI is a growing field of technology and for now its evolving quickly. In summary, I recommend you start learning about Agentic AI now. This technology has the potential to add huge value to businesses. Start to look for processes in your business where an AI agent could add value. Don’t wait until 2026 when I believe having an AI strategy will be standard for businesses of all sizes to start to get to grips with this technology.
