Artificial Intelligence (AI) has come a long way, but the next frontier — Agentic AI — promises to revolutionize business and society in previously unimaginable ways. These autonomous systems capable of reasoning, acting and negotiating independently will push AI beyond automation to augment human decision-making and creativity.
Vijay Guntur, CTO and Head of Ecosystems at HCLTech, contextualized this potential during a panel with three leaders on the impact of AI technologies at the World Economic Forum in Davos: “By 2030, AI is expected to contribute $15 trillion in value to the global economy, roughly equivalent to the combined GDP of China and India today, and everyone wants to be part of that.”
Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE for Customer Services & Delivery, added: “There’s no time to lose, because the product gains are real.”
The key drivers for adoption
According to Shez Partovi, Chief Business Leader of Enterprise Informatics and Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer at Royal Philips, there are three key business expectations driving the adoption of Agentic AI:
- Automation — the automation of operations, especially when combined with robotics
- Augmentation — AI enhancing human productivity with tools like GitHub Copilot
- Agility — AI enabling real-time decision-making, particularly in areas like supply chain.
However, he noted several challenges, including the importance of oversight, as AI agents don’t always make perfect decisions, making governance and transparency crucial.
Overcoming barriers to Agentic AI adoption at scale
A major hurdle for successful deployment is access to high-quality data. As Partovi explained, “The success of Agentic AI depends on three factors: volume, variety and veracity of data.”
The panel was unanimous that unbiased, industry-specific and proprietary data is essential for building reliable AI models.
“Organizations need the right data for the right decision. Making quality data accessible is important and Agentic AI can help make that happen,” said Guntur.
Saueressig added: “Public LLMs use the same data, offering no differentiation. To stand out, companies need to focus on proprietary data.”
Technical challenges alone aren’t the only obstacle. The transition to Agentic AI demands a shift in organizational culture and mindset. Effective leadership must embrace experimentation, innovation and risk-taking. As Saueressig put it, “Leaders like predictably and stability. The challenge lies in adopting an experimental mindset and empowering employees at all levels to engage with this technology.”
“Those that adapt quickly and embrace experimentation will have an edge in benefiting from these advancements,” agreed Guntur.
Accessibility and connectivity also remain a critical challenge. “There are millions of people who aren’t connected to the internet,” said Teresa Hutson, Corporate Vice President, Technology for Fundamental Rights at Microsoft.
She added: “AI systems must be designed to meet the diverse needs of populations. What we build must reflect the people we serve.”
In response, Saueressig commented: “We should absolutely focus on the positive elements AI can bring to society. We truly believe it’s a duet and not a duel.”
From productivity to possibility: Agentic AI’s immediate potential
Despite these challenges, Agentic AI’s autonomy presents immediate opportunities across industries. Guntur pointed to current applications in front-office roles like customer support and marketing, as well as the personalization of products in manufacturing and the regulatory support in life sciences, illustrating the key difference between Agentic AI and generative AI: “While generative AI focuses on creating options, Agentic AI makes decisions autonomously.” This shift from suggestions to active decision-making marks Agentic AI’s distinction from earlier subsets of AI.
In healthcare, Guntur highlighted that “Agentic AI could dramatically reduce the time clinicians spend making decisions by offering data-driven recommendations.” He also anticipates AI playing a vital role in drug discovery and addressing rare diseases in the coming years.
Partovi expanded on this transformative impact in healthcare: “AI can prioritize which CT scan requires attention, not based on a first-come-first-serve basis, but on urgency. This small microtask represents a significant shift in the way healthcare is delivered.”
Beyond productivity and efficiency, Agentic AI offers life-changing opportunities for underserved communities. Hutson highlighted “early adopters of new technologies are often people with disabilities. For example, audio books were originally designed for blind or visually impaired people, and today, we’re partnering with the Rijksmuseum to create visual descriptions of art for blind and visually impaired people, while also enabling voice banking for those at risk of losing their voice through degenerative diseases.”
Looking ahead, Saueressig suggested 2025 will be the year of applying AI systems to all the “boring, administrative tasks,” while Partovi believes in the next decade organizations will have AI agents negotiating with one another on blockchain.
Embrace the change
Any significant change will create resistance.
In the case of AI, “people worry that jobs will go away...Some jobs go, but you ultimately end up with more jobs,” said Hutson.
She pointed to the interstate highway system in the United States as an example of how adjacent industries emerge alongside innovation. “When highways were built, it led to billboards and motels — things we just didn’t think about. It’s these adjacent things that we really need to get curious about.”
To fully realize AI’s potential, Hutson stressed the importance of broad adoption. “The countries or organizations that do the best in a technological change are the ones who diffuse the technology throughout their entire population or workforce.”
Saueressig agreed and said: “Educating employees across generations is important, and companies are now prioritizing AI and data programs.”
He added that building trust and transparency is also crucial in embracing the change brought by AI and it will be defined by “reliability, responsibility and relevancy.”
A world of revolutionary AI
Concluding the panel, moderator Dr. Saikat Chaudhuri, AI, Innovation and Strategy Professor at UC Berkeley, said: “Agentic AI will lead us to a world of revolutionary AI, not just incremental change. We will be able to do things now that we couldn’t even imagine before. But to make this work, we need to build trust, improve data quality, build proprietary data sets and focus on leadership and organizational change. The key is embracing change and fostering innovation.”
