The era of Agentic AI is arrived and no one is ready. John Tallon from Storm Technology outlines the opportunities for businesses.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is impacting every aspect of the world of business. From how organisations enable employees to how they serve customers, we are only at the beginning of the AI journey.
Next stop: Agentic AI.
“The bottom line is the opportunities offered by Agentic AI are vast, but these can only be realised if action is taken at the top-level of organisations”
Unlike typical AI models, Agentic AI can carry out tasks with much more “agency”.
Traditionally, working with generative AI models requires continuous human input to achieve an outcome. With AI agents, human input can be reduced or removed completely, and agents can work together dynamically based on situational context to achieve an outcome.
For instance, a customer service agent can proactively interact with customers using past behaviours and purchase history for context to personalise, helping build loyalty. For finance, agents could work together gathering and analysing month end data to produce insight to help with decision making. One agent can be given the sole task of identifying patterns in a data provided by another agent responsible for gathering relevant data. An opportunities or threats agent can use that to identify what actions could be taken. In other words, Agentic AI opens up endless possibilities for business leaders seeking to cut costs, supercharge productivity, boost efficiency or enhance service.
Don’t just take our word for it though. The rapidly growing influence of Agentic AI is already being recognised by the 33% of IT decision-makers across Ireland and the UK who say it will be one of the most prominent trends over the next three years. This includes almost a third (32%) of IT decision makers working in SMEs.
Whilst undoubtedly innovative and transformative, organisations need to approach Agentic AI adoption strategically for it to be effective. That means considering the human element – how team members can leverage such technology – and aligning it with business objectives – where it can drive results.
The human element
It goes without saying that Agentic AI has the potential to permanently – and positively – change how people work. By making decisions and operating independently on administrative tasks with limited human input, workers can automate high-volume, resource-heavy manual tasks and spend more time on business-critical activities such as complex problem-solving or company strategy.
Those leveraging Agentic AI can also gain an edge in the talent landscape as often the more innovative an organisation is, the more attractive it is to both prospective and existing employees. By empowering employees to better manage and complete their workloads with these solutions, employers can boost employee efficiency, productivity and satisfaction.
However, it is imperative that employers equip people with not just the technologies but the training and skills to leverage them. As well as ensuring efficacy and success, this also supports proper governance and compliance.
The business advantage
Not only does Agentic AI support greater productivity, efficiency and arguably autonomy for employees, it can also aid organisations in terms of supporting service delivery, including customer service, and business growth. This is even more relevant for SMEs which may not have as many resources or the margin for error that bigger corporations do.
Speaking of bigger organisations, Agentic AI tools can enable businesses to meet heightened demand, quickly expand operations and adapt in line with organisational needs as it evolves. Moreover, as agentic AI evolves, so too will the scope and complexity of the work it manages, meaning agents will eventually be able to manage more complicated and technical business processes.
Alongside scalability and complexity, Agentic AI enhances accuracy and enables proactive and data-driven decision-making for business leaders. By automating data analysis and using these insights, organisations can optimise and future-proof themselves.
The next step
With many organisations already embarking on AI journeys, those who haven’t yet must determine their next steps. That means identifying areas of the business where Agentic AI could prove effective and creating a tailored strategy to match the unique needs of the company.
Where available and suitable, businesses should rely on existing tools (such as Microsoft’s Copilot Studio) to create AI agents or consult IT partners to help maximise the return on investment of such projects.
The bottom line is the opportunities offered by Agentic AI are vast, but these can only be realised if action is taken at the top-level of organisations. Business leaders need to embrace it, otherwise they will lag behind their more forward-thinking, fast-acting competitors.
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