Agentic AI
Quick Answer
Agentic AI refers to systems that can pursue goals autonomously by planning, taking actions across tools, observing outcomes and adapting their approach. Agentic systems go beyond single-turn question answering to execute multi-step workflows on a user's behalf.
In Depth
What Agentic AI really means
An agentic system typically pairs a reasoning model with a set of tools — APIs, databases, browsers, code executors — and a memory of its own progress. It breaks a goal into steps, executes them, observes results, and iterates until the goal is met or a failure condition is reached.
Agentic AI is the current frontier of enterprise AI. It promises far higher leverage but introduces new governance, safety and cost challenges that require thoughtful design.
Why It Matters
Business relevance for UK organisations
UK organisations piloting agentic AI typically start with low-risk internal workflows — research, data gathering, report preparation — before expanding to customer-facing or financially material tasks.
Real-world example
How this shows up in practice
A Cambridge consultancy deployed an agentic AI to prepare client briefing packs overnight, pulling from CRM, calendar, public filings and news sources — saving each consultant around six hours per week.
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