Glossary: Agentic AI

Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can pursue goals with a degree of independence by interpreting objectives, developing plans, taking actions, evaluating results and adapting their behavior without requiring a human to specify every step.

In robotics and industrial automation, agentic AI can connect high-level goals with physical execution. For example, instead of being explicitly programmed with every step of a task, an AI agent could interpret an objective, break it into subtasks, select appropriate tools or robots and coordinate execution.

Agentic AI is related to but distinct from physical AI. Agentic AI describes the goal-directed autonomy and decision-making behavior, while physical AI emphasizes intelligence operating through physical systems.

Related terms: Physical AI, Orchestration, VLA