Where is Agentic AI Headed?

Agentic AI is gathering steam and is getting headlines now. While AI Agents aren’t as frightening as Artificial General Intelligence, swarming Agents can get scary if not guided by clear, focused, and beneficial goals bounded by guardrails. Hopefully, humankind will be taken into account when setting these goals and guardrails. Keep in mind that previously siloed types of AI will be swept into these two powerful categories. See the types of contributing AI by clicking here. Let’s dive into the future of Agentic AI, but first, let’s get some definitions down for clarity. I let AI, (*MS Copilot 365,) itself create the two definitions below:

     Agentic AI is like schools of fish looking for feeding grounds

Definition of Agentic AI *

Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that possess the ability to act autonomously and make decisions based on their own goals, preferences, or objectives. Unlike traditional AI, which typically follows predefined rules or responds directly to user input, agentic AI can initiate actions, adapt its behavior, and pursue complex tasks without constant human oversight. This type of AI often features advanced reasoning, planning, and self-motivation, making it capable of interacting with environments in a proactive and dynamic manner.

Definition of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) *

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) represents a type of AI that is capable of understanding, learning, and performing any intellectual task that a human being can. Unlike narrow AI, which specializes in specific applications, AGI demonstrates flexibility and adaptability across a broad spectrum of activities. AGI systems are designed to reason, solve problems, and transfer knowledge between different domains, closely mirroring the general cognitive abilities of humans.

Difference between Agentic AI and AGI

Agentic AI is usually autonomous and makes decisions based on defined or self-defined goals within a narrow band of specific problems. AGI can understand, learn, and apply knowledge in a wider range of contexts, leveraging broad cognitive capabilities like humans can. There is, however, a growth path for Agentic AI to learn and broaden its goal and context domains. Then the differences start to blur and overlap, creating some muddy opportunities and situations. This writing assumes that this growth path is where Agentic AI is headed

          Real Agentic AI Attained: How Will You Know?



Ultimately, Agentic AI will reach the pinnacle of seven dimensions that I will describe below. View this as an arch of attributes reaching over us as we pass through underneath, with the keystone dimension being independence. All these dimensions are growing in maturity and capability with Agentic AI, simultaneously yielding real Agentic AI.

Significance

This dimension represents the guiding goals for Agentic AI as it pursues results within solid boundaries and good governance. This may mean that the goals can blend and bend on context with emergence. Eventually, goals will be adapted dynamically.

 
Context of Interest

The goals, static or emerging, will point to context(s) and supporting data/knowledge of interests driven internally or externally. These contextual domains will contain resources for agentic AI to leverage and potentially update, affecting other agents, building patterns of repeatability.

Detection

Agents will need to be sensitive to change, even if looking for expected events or triggers. Planning agents will also look for patterns of interest and match them to pre-established or dynamic strategic planning analysis results, looking for opportunities to make change. If emergence is detected, these agents will report and represent the patterns of conditions, thus potentially shifting outcomes.

Independence

Agents will be given more and more freedom to respond to changes detected while operating in real-time. This is where the lines between AGI and AI agents will blur. They may cooperate with each other or override each other based on situations anticipated or not. Full freedom will be where there are significant learnings to be had. This is a real step of faith as process control fades.

Continuous

Agents will be in an always-on mode in a real-time fashion and cycling through an iterative improvement cycle based on instant optimization within guidelines, boundaries, and blended goals, looking for adaptation opportunities or threats.

Collaboration

Agentic AI will not only leverage legacy-wrapped processes, snippets, code, bots, and purpose-built agents, but also collaborate with agents that are specialized, physically embedded, or highly interdependent. A brokering or management agent may interact with other agents depending on goal compatibility.

Swarm Dynamics

AI agents will not only cooperate but swarm to create dynamic success patterns of operations, adapting to emergent conditions to stay within significant goal priorities. This will dynamically change the shape of agent executions to match any emergence detected.

Net; Net:

Are we there yet? Well, we have and will continue to see Agentic AI operating on the battlefield. While this is not my favorite topic, there are also successes in IOT device behavior and supply chain situations. General business applications are early because business is busy with chatbots, automation, algorithmic optimization, LLMs, and agent interactions with processes. Expect a change from inside-out change agents/bots being controlled by processes to real outside-in Agentic AI over the coming years. From process-driven to goal-driven with guidelines and guardrails. You don’t have to wait for quantum computing, but a big boost is coming from quantum.

Additional Reading:

Guiding Agentic AI with Goals

Goal Lifecycle

Goal Management

Attaining Stretch Goals

Agentic AI in Context

Context Savvy

Data Context

Big Data 

Agentic AI Detects

Business FOMO

Event Discovery

Dark Patterns

Agentic Independence

Agentic AI and Processes

Coordinated Autonomy

Agentic AI Management

Agents Making Decisions

Decisions Without Perfect Data

Agentic AI is Always on

Real-time Scenarios

Corporate Performance

Real Time is Essential

Collaboration with Agentic AI

Clearing Chaos

Results Coordinate Agents

Agents Represent Stakeholder Interests

Agentic AI Swarms

Agents Built to Swarm

Best Agents to Swarm

Swarming to Serve Customers

 

 

 

 

   

Are You Ready to Become AI's Pet?

There are two major forces driving us toward a key decision point we will have to make in the near future. First is the accelerating growth of AI, and second is AI's role in the emerging new world order. As these forces converge rapidly, you will have to make a life-changing decision. My best estimate is that you have until 2030 to decide whether to play the good, loyal pet to AI, or not. Let's look at the trends and forces that are at play in my line of reasoning.

AI is Growing and Unstoppable:

Most of all, organizations want the benefits of an intelligence spiral, but at the cost of displaced people. You can read all kinds of dire predictions that most white-collar work will be displaced quickly. It will necessitate support for the displaced masses. Second, people like the assistance they are getting from AI. AI is now embedded in a number of things to the point that it can’t be displaced. It won’t appear as a war but as a convenience accelerated. We are all slowly being hooked on AI, and "why not?" It offers what the world wants these days.

As AI surpasses human capabilities and begins to control itself, creating a need to regenerate itself and improve at speed, where is the necessary governance? Who will control the ever-growing, morphing AI without killing innovation and the benefits it brings to both individuals and organizations? Who sets the goals and guardrails for AI? Nobody wants to give up the benefits, so who controls the AI's released spirit? Here are some of the things AI is predicting about itself right now, before the sentient point. 

• Every knowledge job is on a countdown
• AI predicts 99% unemployment in 5 years for knowledge work
• Physical work displacement will lag to the 10-year mark as robotics develops
• AI sees no role for humans to play except to serve it. 
• AI predicts chaos is coming like never before
• AI suggests no kids right now

Humans trying to control and govern AI is a joke to AI. Bro, it’s like your pet saying I have my human in control. We will likely not control, much less govern, AI in a way that promotes human goodness. We will be lucky if AI makes us a pet in the projected future of chaos. A pet dog doesn’t get a seat at the boardroom table, according to AI

The New World Order (NWO) Steps in

Humanity is facing insurmountable problems of many conflicts, economic imbalances, environmental challenges, and growing food shortages. Added to this plate of delight, the NWO will try to rein in AI as well. Initiallly AI will seem to help solve some of these sticky problems along with robotics. NWO will try to erase the conflicts and turn them into cooperation through the means at its disposal, which include AI, plus others yet to be revealed. First humans will become the pets of the NWO solutions, which will employ identity and control. 

Digital ID and Digital Currency set the stage for human control as jobs disappear. The NWO can send out payments as people get displaced. You won’t be able to play without either and will be a victim of programmable compliance. If you are a well-behaved pet, you will be able to thrive and even be rewarded. Without that, you may become a burden to society, and you can only imagine what might happen to you, starting with sanctions. It will be sold as an extension of life through better health and an immortal personality in the cloud. The NWO will use the carrot-and-stick approach. The stick is really ugly when you can't buy food or any other goods, as the availability of all goods declines. 

Net; Net:

Will AI eventually drive NWO as it becomes the pet of AI? The only certainty is uncertainty in the future, so it's all about adaptability and constant reinvention. AI will be the master, and if you don’t want to be its well-behaved pet, you will have to thrive outside the system, aka “The New World Order,” that will be a carrot and big stick approach as the world destabilizes. The humans who survive will have to submit to superintelligence or adapt quickly enough to escape it. The rest will need prayer. It's the end of the world as we know it, and ultimately, we won't feel fine. 

Additional Reading:

AI is Better Than Me

AI: For Good or Evil

Who is Afraid of AI? 

AI is Better Than Me; Now What?

We all know that AI is progressing fast in a linear fashion so far, but there is an inflection point coming. In early 2026, AI’s IQ is now higher than 98% of the population, hovering near 130 and growing about 2.5 points per month in a linear fashion. The reaction might be “OMG What am I going to do?” 

First, you might question whether IQ is the right measurement because IQ is for humans, and AI might find IQ answers in large data sets that it can power through instantaneously.  That only delays action and is kind of a “head in the sand” approach for AI. Second, you might take a number of proactive approaches to dealing with AI. Whatever you do, keep in mind that AI struggles with the following (for now)

·        Common sense

·        Contextual understanding

·        Explainability and transparency

·        Ethics and judgements

·        Emotional intelligence (EQ)

·        Empathy

·        Creativity and Original Innovation

Proactive Approaches to Buy Time

Super Charge Yourself with AI

Use AI as an assistant as it is powerful, fast, and cheap for automation tasks and integrating some answers for further human processing. AI is great at data analysis and pattern recognition, which can be leveraged for better situational analysis. AI is also getting great at generating images, videos, and even self-healing software.

Shift Your Differentiation to Soft Skills

If you see AI painting you into a corner as your organization keeps aggressively leveraging AI to stay competitive, make sure you pick skills and volunteer to handle roles that are more reasoning-focused and judgmental.

Shift Your Career from Knowledge Work to Physical Skills

Long-term AI will try to eat up most of the knowledge work. There are predictions that most knowledge work will be rare in a five-year horizon, so physical infrastructure jobs will be in demand until robotics catches up

Net; Net:

Organizations will need AI to stay competitive in changing markets, so they will not likely take care of their employees. Everyone will be on their own to cope with AI’s impacts even before it reaches the singularity. While AI still struggles with 100% factual accuracy and common sense, it’s just a matter of time before it reaches excellent accuracy. You can ignore AI at your own peril, as every knowledge job is on a countdown to be reduced or eliminated in the next five years, and physical work displacement another five years. Will unemployment approach 90+ percent in your lifetime? Time will tell.

Additional Reading:

AI: For Good or Evil

  

Who is Afraid of AI

  

What Did People Read in 2025?

 While AI dominated the scene on my blog, certain boilerplate topics of RPA, Business Processes, and Customer Journeys still did well for people. Below are the topics of greatest interest to my followers, along with the countries where curiosity is most intense (beyond the US & China).

                       Topics of High Interest 

                     

                   Countries of High Interest other than the US & China