By Srikant Sowmyanarayanan, Head of Solutions for Generative AI Business, Happiest Minds Technologies
Businesses today are at a bit of a turning point. Traditional automation and AI have already made a dent in repetitive work, but most of those systems are still reactive. They stick to predefined tasks and need human eyes on them. But business leaders now expect more; they want systems that can think, decide, and act on their own. That’s where Agentic AI comes in.
What Really is Agentic AI
Unlike regular AI that just waits for a prompt, Agentic AI is proactive and goal-driven. It’s built to –
- Plan – Break down big goals into smaller, manageable steps
- Decide – Use data and business rules to make choices in real time
- Act – Carry out multi-step tasks across different systems
- Self-Correct – Learn from outcomes and improve its approach
Transformative Business Application
The real value of Agentic AI is in how it can transform the whole business process. This isn’t just an upgrade; it’s a shift towards autonomous execution.
A few practical examples to make this clearer:
- Customer support: An agent can manage the entire issue from start to finish. Gartner estimates that by 2029, Agentic AI could resolve up to 80% of common queries, bringing down the costs by 30%.
- Procurement: From finding suppliers to drafting contracts, an agent can handle the entire procurement cycle. Companies already using AI here are seeing 15-20% cost savings.
- E-commerce: Agents can adjust rankings, prices, and promotions automatically based on competitors and inventory. Businesses running dynamic pricing with AI typically see revenue gains of 5-10%.
So, the real question isn’t ‘What is Agentic AI’ anymore. Is your company ready to adopt it?
The Agentic AI Maturity Model
Bringing in Agentic AI isn’t a one-off project. It’s a journey, and the Maturity Model lays out a four-stage path to help enterprises progress from early exploration to running fully autonomous systems.
Stage 1: Initial Readiness
At this point, organizations are just beginning their journey. The focus is on creating awareness through research, training, and small proof of concepts while setting up the right foundation. That means building reliable, high-quality data pipelines, ensuring systems are connected via open APIs, and having some basic ML capabilities in place. This stage is about testing feasibility, helping teams understand what Agentic AI can do, and getting the technical readiness needed for future scaling.
Stage 2: Pilot Agent Deployment
Here, companies move from theory into practice. A limited number of agents are deployed for specific, clearly scoped business cases. Importantly, these deployments usually include a human in the loop, someone who reviews the agent’s actions, gives feedback, and steps in if needed. This helps evaluate how the agent performs, tune its reasoning, and build trust in its capabilities.
Stage 3: Multi-Agent Workflows
After early pilots succeed, enterprises expand into workflows where multiple agents collaborate. This is when the real potential of agentic systems becomes clear. For example, a sales agent might pass along deal details to a finance agent who then generates an invoice automatically. The focus in this stage is on orchestration, coordination, and enabling different agents to work across business units.
Stage 4: Scales Autonomous Systems
At this stage, organizations start deploying agentic systems at scale. Agents are now enterprise-wide, secure, and governed. They function with a high degree of autonomy and need minimal human oversight. The focus shifts to optimization, monitoring, and ensuring agents follow strict standards of compliance, governance, and ethics. By this stage, Agentic AI is no longer an experiment; it becomes central to how the company operates.
Readiness Checklist: Is Your Organization Prepared
Before rolling out Agentic AI, enterprises have to ensure their infrastructure, culture, and processes are ready. Here’s a practical checklist to assess readiness:
- Clear business goals aligned with AI strategy: Define the problems Agentic AI will solve and tie them directly to your business strategy.
- Structured and labeled data pipelines: High-quality, accessible, and well-labeled data is key for agent reasoning.
- Interoperable systems with open APIs: Check if current systems can interact with each other and allow agents to run workflows across them.
- Security and governance frameworks: Build mechanisms to control risks, track agent actions, and ensure compliance with regulations.
- Human oversight and feedback: Keep checkpoints and feedback loops through a human in the loop model.
- Willingness to reengineer workflows: Be prepared to redesign business processes to give agents the autonomy they need to operate effectively.
The Value of Agentic AI
Companies that successfully make the transition to autonomous systems stand to gain clear advantages:
- Accelerated efficiency & cost reduction: Agents operate 24/7, automate complex workflows, and reduce errors, freeing people to focus on strategic tasks.
- Better decision making: By analyzing data in real time, agents can identify patterns and predict outcomes faster and more accurately.
- Adaptability: Agents can reroute and adjust processes quickly when disruptions occur, such as supply chain issues.
- Customer experience: Agents can deliver personalized, fast, and consistent service, enabling improved customer loyalty and satisfaction.
How Do You Get Started
The best way to begin is with one meaningful use case that shows clear value. Once you prove success, scale gradually. Partnering with experienced AI providers can help avoid early mistakes and speed up adoption. From there, the focus should be on building a long-term roadmap that takes you from pilots to fully autonomous systems.
Agentic AI represents the next major step in enterprise automation. Companies that start early will gain a lasting competitive edge. The key is not to try doing everything at once – start small, build confidence, and expand steadily. Those who take this journey now will be the ones reaping the biggest rewards tomorrow.