#agentic-ai

#agentic-ai

We have the suspicion that the next step for AI models is to start reaching out into the world and affecting the world more broadly,

Tech execs pushing to get agentic AI projects into production will have to surmount complicated challenges to prevent their efforts from failing, according to the CEO of a San Francisco-based AI startup. Companies need to establish a roadmap, outline deliverables, and experiment to achieve successful project execution, Curtis Northcutt, Co-founder and CEO of Cleanlab, said in an interview last week with Computerworld. "The moment that these enterprises and these CIOs take a break or the moment that you think, 'Oh, we finally got it figured out' - that's the moment you fall behind," he said.

Every Instructional Designer (ID) knows the drill. You've completed your needs analysis, identified performance gaps, and gathered all your Subject Matter Expert content. Now comes the time-consuming task of creating detailed storyboards-formatting learning objectives, designing screen treatments, crafting assessment questions, and ensuring everything follows organizational standards. Hours turn into days as you meticulously structure content, proofread for errors, and maintain formatting consistency across dozens of screens. What if there was a way to reclaim 40% of that time by automating storyboard creation?

Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world in the past few years, and the broadband industry is riding the wave with agentic AI tools for customer support systems, network management, and construction management. AI has also had major cybersecurity implications this year, both in terms of increased attacks and improved tools to combat those attacks. We'll cover some major reports and developments so far this year. Then, we'll go over some of the most important ways telecoms are using AI.

For years, automation has promised to make our lives easier - and to some extent, it has. But in 2025, things feel different. Traditional automation resembles a giant "if-else" statement that struggles to adapt to diverse situations. Agentic AI changes that narrative by enabling workflows to adjust and optimize themselves for countless scenarios that were difficult for older automation tools. In October 2025, OpenAI launched its AgentKit tool for building AI agents, and let me tell you, it is glorious!

Writing Python code is complicated; managing Python programmers is complex. Editing a video is complicated; making a video go viral on YouTube is complex. Compiling a C program is complicated; doing a YOLO run when training a base model is complex. DNS lookups are complicated; running a registrar is complex. Registering CVEs is complicated; predicting how a hacker will use a CVE is complex.

Take the example of workflow automation software company Pegasystems, which recently celebrated a financial turnaround on the back of its switch from process automation to so-called agentic AI, causing third-quarter revenue to rise 17 percent from the previous year. "In applications, Pegasystems is working with us to take legacy applications which may have run on-prem or in a hybrid environment and modernize them in the cloud," he tells The Register. The vision is that legacy applications can be combined with newer elements and sewn together with LLM agents to present the end user with a coherent experience. Although AWS doesn't provide applications or LLMs, it is building infrastructure and tooling to support this. Under the hood, Pegasystems uses AWS Bedrock, a managed service offering a choice of foundational models through a single API.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is turning creativity from a craft of patience into a game of speed. What earlier required hours of design work and rendering now unfolds in seconds, powered by algorithms that generate, iterate and refine on command. For decades, Adobe has been the world's go-to creative tool ecosystem, even as competitors closed in. Now, the 43-year-old tech conglomerate is betting that agentic AI will define the next era of creative content production and marketing.

The future of Agentic AI in learning isn't about replacing human expertise-it's about scaling it. By embedding best-practice design principles into AI today, we're ensuring that tomorrow's fully autonomous systems will create, deliver, and refine knowledge that's not just quick to build, but built to last.

The Hollywood model of work-specialized teams assembling for specific projects, then dissolving and reconfiguring for new ones-is a refreshing alternative to the rigid corporate structures inherited from the industrial era. For decades, this fluid approach seemed impractical for most businesses. Now, it is becoming feasible as AI handles the logistical complexities and knowledge management that once required permanent bureaucracies. With agentic technology, next-generation enterprises can use the Hollywood model to reshape organizations into more flexible, dynamic systems that reward performance

"AI has been a great force multiplier for somebody who's an expert," said Yakovenko, describing his experience with agentic coding after more than 15 years developing software. "Now I can just watch Claude churning through its thing and I can almost smell when it's going off the rails."

Adobe is expanding its agentic AI capabilities to Photoshop and Adobe Express, giving users access to its AI-powered assistants. The company also previewed plans to extend these conversational capabilities to models like ChatGPT, allowing users to edit and generate content using natural language prompts. An Adobe Express-ChatGPT integration is expected soon. Google brings crucial technical expertise, while Adobe leads in creative solutions, Dan Durn, EVP and CFO at Adobe, told me.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just a productivity enhancer. It has evolved into a strategic organizational capability that is transforming how businesses learn, adapt, and perform. Today, success depends on an organization's ability to close the AI literacy gap-the distance between technological potential and the capability to apply AI effectively and responsibly. This shift has profound implications for Instructional Design, corporate learning, and workforce readiness.

This year, "agentic" became the sexiest buzzword to hit vendor PowerPoints. It's everywhere from specific products to the era itself. At times, it seems that no copy can leave the door without the word "agentic" crammed in there, despite it hitting the ear with roughly the same credibility as "putting the law on the blockchain" or "building a metaverse practice."

As the Trump administration shrinks the federal workforce, the private sector is developing artificial intelligence that could fill in gaps - specifically, agentic AI, technology that can take action without precise instructions. The "agentic enterprise," where humans work alongside AI agents, was the theme of Salesforce's annual conference last week. Currently, it's largely a hypothetical in the federal context. Agencies don't have Salesforce-powered agents in production, and what exactly counts as an AI agent is debatable, as the term is used to describe systems with varying degrees of autonomy.

In broad strokes, Serval is using agentic AI models to automate IT service management, but the company has a unique approach that takes advantage of agentic AI's powers while avoiding many of its pitfalls. One agent is used to code internal automations for everyday tasks like authorizing software or provisioning a device. The founders see it as a kind of vibe-coding tool, overseen by an IT manager, but doing most of the work on its own.

Agentic AI is not just another iteration of automation or generative AI. Agentic AI systems can autonomously manage complex tasks, optimize processes, and proactively identify opportunities or risks, reducing the need for constant human oversight. This autonomy allows businesses to respond more quickly to changing market conditions, improve decision-making, and allocate human resources to higher-value activities.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you license some and you hire some, depending on the quality and depending on the deep expertise," Huang added. "So future workforces in enterprise will be a combination of humans and digital humans."

As enterprises expand AI adoption across both internal teams and end consumers, agentic AI stands out for its potential to elevate customer experience through autonomous and semi-autonomous actions. By enabling faster, more personalized interactions, agentic AI is driving demand for practical ways to deploy it at scale. The proof is in the investments. The global autonomous agents market is valued at $4.35 billion in 2025 and is forecast to surpass $100 billion by 2034 - a compound annual growth rate of more than 42%.

"Firstly, accounting is governed by rules, the focus is compliance, the focus is ensuring things are done right [and] that's a big part of the role of finance," said Sankar. "I want to make sure that I sign on the dotted line saying these numbers are accurate that I'm complying with rules and regulations. "That will never change but if you look at how it is performed today it's a very labour intensive process so we believe there's a lot of opportunity for automation."

Liberate, an AI startup automating insurance operations, has raised $50 million in a round led by Battery Ventures as it looks to scale its agentic deployments across carriers and agencies globally. The all-equity round values the three-year-old startup at $300 million post-money, with participation from new investor Canapi Ventures and returning backers Redpoint Ventures, Eclipse, and Commerce Ventures. The insurance industry has been navigating a difficult stretch, with rising operational costs, legacy system constraints, and increasing customer expectations.

Most haven't even defined what they want their AI agents to do. The networking hardware manufacturer found in its 2025 AI Readiness Index that most companies are planning to deploy additional AI agents in the next few years, and 86 percent expect it to improve employee productivity within three years, but those expectations don't necessarily match the reality of what it takes for such an initiative to succeed.

Future workforces in enterprise will be a combination of humans and digital humans. Some of them will be OpenAI-based, and some of it would be Harvey-based or Open Evidence or Cursor or Replit or Lovable,

Gartner's study pours cold water on the current state of the industry, however, noting that the "mass proliferation" of agentic tools "far exceeds the present demand".

Apple is facing a tough new rival in the era of AI, according to the company's former CEO. Speaking at the Zeta Live conference in New York City on Thursday, Apple's former CEO, John Sculley, said OpenAI represented "the first real competitor" that Apple has had "in many decades." "AI has not been a particular strength for them," Sculley said of Apple.

AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn like humans. AI has been around for a very long time. And you've been using it for a very long time. Spellcheck? That's AI. The predictive text on your phone? Also AI. AI even helped the Allies in World War II. These days, however, when people talk about AI, they are typically referring to two more modern and advanced forms of AI: generative AI and agentic AI.