Agentic AI
Definition
Agentic AI refers to AI systems that can autonomously plan, reason, and execute multi-step tasks with minimal human intervention, going beyond simple prompt-response interactions.
Why It Matters
Agentic AI is the defining trend of 2025 in artificial intelligence. It marks a shift from AI as a passive tool that answers questions to AI as an active collaborator that can complete entire workflows. Major tech companies are betting heavily on agentic capabilities, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google all racing to build more autonomous AI systems.
How It Works
Agentic AI combines several capabilities: reasoning (thinking through problems step-by-step), planning (breaking complex goals into subtasks), tool use (accessing APIs, databases, and external systems), and memory (maintaining context across interactions). The LLM serves as the “brain” that orchestrates these capabilities.
When to Use It
Agentic AI excels at open-ended tasks that would be tedious or impossible to fully specify upfront. Examples include research tasks (“find and summarize the latest papers on X”), coding tasks (“implement this feature and write tests”), and business workflows (“process this invoice and update the database”). The key indicator is whether the task requires multiple decisions and actions.