The capability of AI is growing. Today’s Generative AI is used primarily to develop new content. In the future, Agentic AI will autonomously make decisions that keep businesses humming, so humans can focus on building value.
Artificial intelligence traditionally has been less “intelligent” and more reactive. Generative AI, or GenAI, the familiar technology behind ChatGPT, has propelled content creation. It produces new materials—text, images, video, and more—based on the advanced machine learning models used to train it. GenAI is typically responsive. It processes and reacts to data and then predicts what information should appear next.
GenAI: the Great Producer
GenAI excels at producing content. While effective, it has some limitations. GenAI’s usefulness and accuracy depend on the quality of the data used in training. Biased or inadequate training models can skew GenAI’s content, and those deficiencies can continue to be repeated. In addition, GenAI doesn’t grasp the general idea of or know what it creates. It’s an input-analysis-output process, albeit a highly advanced one.
Emerging agentic AI technology has the ability to transform how we do business. Agentic AI will take in information, make decisions, and act on them without needing frequent human intervention. It will learn from and adapt to changing environments. Agentic AI will become a trusted and active part of the IT department and will move into other business areas as well.
Some agentic AI technologies are already in use: autonomous drones and vehicles make real-time decisions to travel through changing environments. They navigate through traffic, avoid unforeseen obstacles, and reroute when needed. They do all that on the fly, without human involvement.
Agentic AI: the Autonomous Problem Solver
The game-changing aspect is that agentic AI operates with a purpose. It does more than react to information, it makes informed decisions based on the end goal or business objectives and acts on those decisions. Agentic AI continually processes information, evaluates its environment, and dynamically adapts as needed. It typically addresses multi-step problems that need constant assessment and frequent adjustment.
Agentic AI will help classify, tag, and encrypt data for storage, for example, ensuring compliance and security. It will handle load balancing dynamically, reducing the likelihood of overprovisioning, and has the ability to mitigate security threats, all autonomously.
Agentic AI will not only improve data management, but it will free up IT staff to focus on strategic initiatives and value creation to increase profitability. Because agentic AI can work independently and around the clock, it will optimize systems and fix problems before they occur, often before IT leaders are even aware they exist.
Moving forward, GenAI and agentic AI will work together to evolve business systems. Companies can combine content creation with autonomous actions to improve operations dynamically. Knowing how and when to use each technology will allow businesses to leverage AI effectively.
Learn more about agentic AI from Jason Hardy, VP & CTO for AI at Hitachi Vantara, in his recent article, 5 Major Ways Agentic AI Will Change IT & Data Management.