In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become one of the most revolutionary technological innovations. Starting from Generative AI that dominates various digital platforms, now a new era of AI has emerged known as Agentic AI. This technology takes AI to a higher level with extraordinary autonomy and flexibility capabilities. However, behind the great benefits it offers, Agentic AI also presents potential threats that need to be anticipated.
What is an agentic AI?
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| What is an agentic AI? |
Agentic AI is an AI system designed to carry out tasks independently on behalf of users or other systems. Unlike Generative AI or traditional chatbots that only respond to commands, Agentic AI has the ability to:
- Access real-time data: Utilize current information to make decisions.
- Solve complex problems: Use logic and programming to solve difficult challenges.
- Act autonomously: Perform tasks without human supervision.
According to an IBM report, Agentic AI combines the flexibility of large language models (LLMs) with the precision of traditional programming. This system is able to understand context, generate dynamic responses, and complete tasks with high precision.
For example, an e-commerce platform equipped with Agentic AI can recommend products based on current data and even make automated purchases on behalf of users. This creates a more personalized and efficient experience.
What is the capability of agentic AI?
Agentic AI offers several advantages that make it highly sought after across various industry sectors:
1. Flexibility and Precision
One of the main advantages of Agentic AI is its ability to integrate Large Language Models (LLM) with traditional programming. This combination allows Agentic AI to deeply understand user needs and provide targeted solutions. For example:
- Supply Chain Optimization: Agentic AI can manage the supply chain in real-time, ensuring efficiency and reducing waste.
- Marketing Strategy: The technology can adjust marketing strategies based on current market data, increasing a company’s competitiveness.
2. Multi-Step Capabilities
Agentic AI can complete complex tasks through four main steps:
- Perceive: Collect and process data from multiple sources to understand the environment.
- Reason: Use LLM to generate solutions and recommendations.
- Act: Perform tasks autonomously through external software.
- Learn: Leverage feedback to continuously improve performance.
3. Wide Applications
Agentic AI has a variety of applications, such as:
- Customer Service: Agentic AI can automate routine communications, providing a faster and more efficient customer experience. An example of an application is a “digital human” that can interact with customers in real-time, provide solutions, or answer their questions.
- Content Creation: In the world of marketing, Agentic AI can help produce engaging, personalized content in a short time. This technology allows companies to reach audiences more precisely and increase customer engagement.
- Software Engineering: Agentic AI can automate complex coding tasks, giving developers more time to focus on innovation. This not only increases productivity but also the quality of the software produced.
- Healthcare: In the health sector, Agentic AI can help doctors analyze patient data, create clinical records, and provide medical information to patients around the clock. This technology can also speed up diagnosis and improve the accuracy of medical care.
What is the impact of agentic AI?
Agentic AI presents huge opportunities to increase productivity and efficiency across sectors:
- Logistics Industry: With its real-time data processing capabilities, Agentic AI can optimize the delivery process, ensure goods arrive on time, and reduce operational costs.
- Human Resources: In the HR world, Agentic AI can support the recruitment process by filtering suitable candidates based on certain criteria. In addition, this technology can help with employee management, such as work schedule planning or performance analysis.
- Healthcare: Agentic AI supports medical personnel in making data-based decisions, such as providing treatment recommendations or detecting patterns from complex medical data. This helps improve the overall quality of healthcare services.
What are the risks of agentic AI?
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| What are the risks of agentic AI? |
Agentic AI, a breakthrough in the world of artificial intelligence, offers incredible flexibility and efficiency. However, behind all these advantages, this technology also carries worrying risks in the realm of cybersecurity. When Agentic AI falls into the wrong hands, its capabilities can be used for various cybercrimes with an alarming level of precision.
According to Dan Lohrmann of Government Technology, Agentic AI is not only capable of automating various positive tasks, but also has the potential to be used to strengthen cyber attacks. This threat should be a serious concern for governments, companies, and the wider community. Some risks to watch out for include:
1. Automated Phishing Attacks
Agentic AI has the ability to generate very realistic phishing emails, both in terms of content and personalization. These attacks can leverage the victim's personal data to create messages that appear legitimate, such as:
- Emails from "banks" requesting information updates.
- Fake messages from "colleagues" requesting access to important documents.
The ability of AI to understand human communication patterns makes these phishing attacks more difficult to detect, even for individuals who are previously wary of such threats.
2. Advanced Malware Utilization
With its autonomy and self-learning capabilities, Agentic AI can be used to develop more complex and adaptive malware.
- This malware can change its attack patterns based on the environment of the targeted system.
- AI-based malware is also able to hide its tracks, making it difficult to track by traditional antivirus software.
These threats can target large enterprises, critical infrastructure, and even personal devices, creating significant risks to data security and operations.
3. Unauthorized System Monitoring
Agentic AI can be used to continuously monitor system logs, without the owner’s permission. This activity has the potential to:
- Expose sensitive data, such as passwords, financial transactions, or other personal information.
- Infiltrate corporate systems to steal trade secrets or strategic data.
These capabilities not only compromise individual privacy, but also threaten business continuity and national security.
Regulatory and Ethical Needs
To ensure that Agentic AI technology is used safely and effectively, comprehensive regulation is needed. Governments and businesses must work together to:
1. Create transformational regulation
Regulation should be designed to accommodate innovation, without compromising security. This could include:
- Regulating AI development to be transparent and auditable.
- Restricting access to AI capabilities that could potentially be misused.
- Requiring security certification for AI technology developers.
2. Ensuring transparency
Any development of AI technology must be conducted with transparency in mind, to prevent privacy violations or discrimination. This can be achieved through:
- Open publication of AI research results, without involving potentially harmful technologies.
- Independent audits to ensure AI technologies adhere to safety and ethical standards.
3. Raising awareness
Educating the public about the potential risks and benefits of Agentic AI is essential to creating a safer environment. This campaign could involve:
- Training to improve digital literacy, particularly in recognizing threats such as phishing or AI-based malware.
- Webinars or seminars on how to protect yourself from cyberattacks.
- Providing practical guidance on the safe use of AI technologies.
Examples of Agentic AI Technology Applications
Here are five examples of companies that have implemented Agentic AI technology:
- Amazon: Using Agentic AI in the Alexa platform to provide product recommendations, manage smart devices, and perform automated tasks for users.
- Tesla: Implementing Agentic AI in the autopilot system for its electric vehicles, enabling autonomous driving with real-time adaptation capabilities.
- Google: Integrating Agentic AI in Google Assistant to help users manage daily activities, such as scheduling and ordering services.
- Microsoft: Through the Azure platform, Microsoft uses Agentic AI to help companies automate business operations, including real-time data analysis.
- Salesforce: Using Agentic AI in the Einstein feature to provide business insights, personalize customer interactions, and improve operational efficiency.
Is agentic AI the future?
With all the potential and challenges it presents, Agentic AI marks a new era in the world of artificial intelligence. This technology not only offers more efficient solutions but also opens up new business opportunities. However, like other technologies, the implementation of Agentic AI must be accompanied by caution and responsibility.
With proper regulation and continued innovation, Agentic AI can be a tool that supports the well-being of humanity without sacrificing security and privacy. The world is on the verge of a more advanced AI revolution, and how we harness it will determine our collective future.
Conclusion
Agentic AI is an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can make decisions and complete tasks independently with limited human supervision. Agentic AI is designed to operate like a human employee, so it can understand context and instructions in natural language.
Agentic AI can be used for a variety of purposes, such as: Automating routine processes, Increasing employee productivity, Helping companies make more effective decisions, Helping companies get work done more efficiently..
