As abruptly as generative AI burst on the scene, so too is the new language that’s come with it. A complete list of AI-related vocabulary would be thousands of entries long, but for the sake of urgent relevance, these are the terms heard most among CIOs, analysts, consultants, and other business executives.
Agentic systems
An agent is an AI model or software program capable of autonomous decisions or actions. When multiple agents work together in pursuit of a single goal, they can plan, delegate, research, and execute tasks until the goal is reached. And when some or all of these agents are powered by gen AI, the results can significantly surpass what can be accomplished with a simple prompt-and-response approach. Gen AI-powered agentic systems are relatively new, however, and it can be difficult for an enterprise to build their own, and it’s even more difficult to ensure safety and security of these systems.
“Agents and agentic AI is obviously an area of enormous investment for VCs and startups,” says Gartner analyst Arun Chandrasekaran. “And we’ll perhaps see more agent frameworks evolve and mature in 2025.”
