Overview for Beginners - What are Agentic Systems?

At its core, an agentic system is a computational entity designed to perceive its environment (both digital and potentially physical), make informed decisions based on those perceptions and a set of predefined or learned goals, and execute actions to achieve those goals autonomously. Unlike traditional software, which follows rigid, step-by-step instructions, agents exhibit a degree of flexibility and initiative.

Imagine you need a system to manage customer inquiries. A traditional system might follow a fixed script. An agentic system, however, could perceive the nuances of a customer's query, access knowledge bases, interact with other internal systems (like order management), potentially ask clarifying questions, and proactively resolve the issue, perhaps even anticipating future needs. These agents operate on the canvas of your application's infrastructure, utilizing the services and data available to them.

Agentic systems are often characterized by features like -

Autonomy, allowing them to act without constant human oversight; Proactiveness, initiating actions towards their goals; and

Reactiveness, responding effectively to changes in their environment.

They are fundamentally goal-oriented, constantly working towards objectives.

A critical capability is tool use, enabling them to interact with external APIs, databases, or services – effectively reaching out beyond their immediate canvas. They possess memory, retain information across interactions,

They can engage in communication with users, other systems, or even other agents operating on the same or connected canvases.

Effectively realizing these characteristics introduces significant complexity.

So we want to ask you from your experience - >How does the agent maintain state across multiple steps on its canvas? >How does it decide when and how to use a tool?

>How is communication between different agents managed?

>How do you build resilience into the system to handle unexpected outcomes or errors?

Pls also read and comment on our detailed articles related to AI Agents.