Agentic AI For Dummies

Introduction

As of early 2025, industry consensus estimates that 115 to 180 million individuals worldwide have been using artificial intelligence (AI) on a daily basis, and you probably have encountered it yourself. Maybe you asked a chatbot to write an e-mail for you, or you used an AI image generator to make a funny picture of your dog in a spacesuit or to make changes to a photo you took with your phone. That kind of AI — which generates text, images, or sound from nothing more than your spoken or typed command — is called Generative AI (GenAI), and it’s been all the rage since late 2022.

But AI is constantly evolving, and the new wave is called Agentic AI. The term agentic simply denotes AI that doesn’t just sit there waiting for you to enter a command in the prompt bar. Instead, it can take action on its own accord. It follows goals and the framework that you set, but it finds its own path to getting there based on its own reasoning and decision-making. Agents can even work with other AI agents to form a whole team of digital coworkers who never need coffee breaks. Multiple agents working together is called an Agentic AI system.

Think of the difference between GenAI and Agentic AI this way:

• GenAI is like a calculator. You push the buttons, and it gives you an answer.
• Agentic AI is like a junior assistant. You tell it what outcome you want, and it figures out the steps to get there. Sometimes, it asks other human or AI assistants for help along the way.

Welcome to the age ...