Agentic AI
Definition
Agentic AI is the umbrella term for AI systems that take actions toward a goal with some independence, instead of only answering questions. It covers fixed AI workflows as well as AI agents that choose their own steps.
By Ronan Liedmeier, fractional head of growth and course author · Published 17 October 2026 · Last updated 17 October 2026
Also called: agentic systems, agentic automation
Vendors use the word loosely. Two questions sort them out: how much of the path does the AI decide, and what is it allowed to change?
How it works
Anthropic uses "agentic systems" as the umbrella for both workflows, where code fixes the steps, and agents, where the model picks its own. Most products sit somewhere between the two.
The more the system decides on its own, the more you need controls around it, such as hard limits set in code and an approval step before anything is sent or deleted.
Example
A head of customer support reviews three vendors that all describe their product as agentic AI. She asks each one which actions the system takes without a human and how it changes her refund process. One product turns out to be a fixed workflow with a model in the middle. For refunds, where she wants the same steps every time, that is the better fit.
Common mistake
Dropping an agent into an existing process without asking whether the process itself is the problem. The same wasted steps now run faster. Decide per process whether to add an agent to a process that already works, or to redesign the process from scratch.
Learn it in AI Academy
- The Agentic Build PatternExpert · 8 minFree
- The Agentic EnterpriseExpert · 9 min
Related terms
- AI agent
- An AI agent is an AI system that works toward a goal by choosing its own next steps: it picks a tool, uses it, looks at the result and repeats until the task is done. You set the goal and the limits, and the agent works out the path.
- AI workflow
- An AI workflow is a fixed series of steps, set in advance by a person or by code, in which an AI model handles one or more of the steps. The steps run in the same order every time, which makes a workflow easy to test and check.
- Human in the loop
- Human in the loop is a setup where an AI system pauses at set points so a person can approve or correct its work before it takes effect. It is used for actions that are hard to undo, such as sending emails to customers or moving money.
- AI governance
- AI governance is the set of rules, owners and checks an organization uses to decide which AI uses are allowed, how their risks are handled, and who answers when something goes wrong. In the US, NIST publishes a voluntary framework for it, the AI Risk Management Framework.