By delivering tools online via subscription model, Software as a Service (SaaS) modified the way in which enterprises worked. Still, the capabilities were limiting for some, so vertical SaaS added industry-specific functionality. Then got here artificial intelligence (AI) and advancements resembling robotic process automation (RPA), which might use virtual bots to duplicate the actions of individuals and eliminate rote tasks.
Now, enterprise software is entering a brand new era with agentic AI, powered by autonomous agents that don’t just mimic humans, they analyze data, make decisions, execute tasks and self-orchestrate workflows in real time. Agentic AI goes far beyond traditional SaaS or RPA. It’s software that acts as a labor force within the digital realm, one which will be integrated across a tech stack and produce measurable business outcomes. That is made possible by individual AI agents drawing from large language models to perform reasoning at a high level.
No prompts from humans are required and every agent will be assigned their very own goal as well. One could concentrate on latest sales, one other facilitate customer support, a 3rd manage manufacturing changes in real time – the probabilities seem infinite. And in contrast to generative AI models resembling ChatGPT, agentic agents don’t just rehash and spit out content, they’ll even crawl through databases and construct workflows by themselves to finish a given task.
In line with Gartner, roughly a 3rd of software applications within the enterprise can have integrated agentic AI by 2028: The figure was lower than a single percent in 2024. In survey results announced by Cloudera in mid-April – based on a poll of 1,484 global IT leaders – 83% felt AI agents were critical for a competitive edge and roughly 60% were afraid they’d fall behind in the event that they didn’t pursue adoption this yr.
Further, a frightening 96% said they were planning to grow their deployments in the following 12 months, half adding these might be big rollouts across their entire organization.
Bridging the divide
Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff has called agentic AI “a brand new labor model, latest productivity model, and a brand new economic model.” Participation within the U.S. labor force stays below even pre-pandemic numbers, and there’s more unfilled jobs today than there are unemployed candidates to take them. A primary goal of AI is to get rid of rote tasks, nonetheless, at the identical time, employees must have the opportunity to supply more. With this in mind, digital labor must be used to reinforce a workforce and lift productivity, heighten efficiency and enable organizations to compete.
Agentic AI can bridge the divide between personnel and product in various ways. As an illustration, a sales executive might use a customer relationship management (CRM) solution to regulate a big group of existing and potential customers and generate sales. An AI agent could communicate with this base, discover opportunities, bring records up to this point, perhaps even complete minor sales. If you’ve gotten that working for a team, every day and across the clock, the hours of manual labor saved, and possibility of sales increases would have a significant impact.
The technology is having some growing pains, particularly relating to pricing agentic AI. “Per seat” models will likely change to “per task” which are being performed. Agentic AI could also turn into more of a value-based model with AI agents “employed” to tackle a function and produce guaranteed results. Salesforce reported only months ago record product deals for Agentforce, its platform for constructing, customizing and deploying autonomous agents, yet it recently modified its pricing model to a consumption-based one which ties costs on to results.
Responsibility and accountability
While much must be ironed out with agentic AI, what’s certain is that the way in which software vendors are chosen might want to change. Traditional evaluation has focused mainly on feature sets, but with agentic AI, businesses must weigh things like a vendor’s history of reliability and responsibility and in the event that they can align with an organization’s specific goals.
Accountability must be a priority for decision makers because they’re not just buying software. As an alternative, they’re giving digital intelligence the approval to do things on their behalf, and that may create legal and compliance issues. That said, businesses need to contemplate their liability, dig deep into the risks, lean into auditability and keep regulatory guidelines on the forefront. Also, organizations must discover who is definitely accountable if an AI agent goes rogue, in addition to procedures for holding or shutting it down should that occur.
Steps to take
With Agentic AI, a lot of us are going to see a significant change in how we do business. The next are a number of actions you’ll be able to immediately take with a view to get the method going.
For starters, reexamine your tech stack with a concentrate on those rules-based functions an AI agent could possibly eliminate. Consider what software might need interoperability problems or require a brand new application programming interface. You should definitely avoid siloed decision making – agentic AI can impact many facets of companies so include leaders from legal, IT and operations. Additionally it is critical to create worker policies for protected and responsible use of agents, too.
You may have to know the work capability of an AI agent, together with the complexity it will possibly eliminate. This implies you’ll also must reconsider software cost models and the return on investment they’ll deliver. That is about volume and efficiency, so seat, license and subscription costs are not any longer the standards to make use of.
Agentic AI will greatly impact SaaS but won’t entirely replace it. We’ll see a collaboration of technologies, guided by a goal of augmenting workforces. Still, enterprises will fundamentally need to vary how they work with software. Agentic AI is here, and the faster you understand what it will possibly do and put it into practice, the more you’ll cement your future position and success.
