Generative AI Vs. Agentic AI: The Key Differences Everyone Needs To Know
“The easiest way to differentiate generative AI from agentic AI is to think of their primary functions. Generative AI is about producing something new, while agentic AI is about achieving something specific. One creates, and the other acts.
Generative AI is largely static. It produces outputs based on the data it has learned but doesn’t adapt in real-time or interact dynamically with the world. It operates within predefined boundaries. In contrast, agentic AI is dynamic. It’s constantly processing new information, learning from its environment, and adjusting its actions accordingly.”
AI-powered agents in action: How we’re embracing this new ‘agentic’ moment at Microsoft
“Here are principles to think about as you consider experimenting with agents at your company:
- Agents are the next wave of AI innovation, enabling your employees to retrieve information, act, or even fully automate business processes and operations.
- While agents are powerful and simple to create, be mindful of security, privacy, responsible AI, and compliance requirements to ensure that your agents aren’t creating unnecessary business risks.
- There are several ways to build no-code and low-code agents for personal or enterprise-wide use, including Agent Builder in SharePoint, creating agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, and using Copilot Studio.
- AI-ready data is essential to unlock the power of agents in the enterprise. Like other AI systems, the responses and actions of your agents are only as good as the data they were trained on.”
What Is Agentic AI? White-Collar Robots Are Here, For Better or Worse
“Though these “AI agents” are still in the early stages, the general idea is to move from a transactional relationship with an AI (user prompts, computer answers), to the AI being more autonomous. It can perform actions on your behalf, with minimal or no input from you. A good introductory example is OpenAI’s tasks, launched this week for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers. The chatbot can now perform simple, routine actions, like checking the stock market or delivering a daily news summary every morning (better hope it doesn’t hallucinate).”
Businesses are keen to embrace AI agents, but still struggle to start
“A report from Pega claims three in five (58%) workers are already using AI agents, with separate research from AI technology firm UiPath revealing nearly all (93%) of IT execs are very interested in agentic AI. UiPath also found over two-thirds (69%) of IT execs are using or will use AI agents within the next six months – a figure not too dissimilar to Pega’s.”