DEV Community

Ravadi Rajkumar
Ravadi Rajkumar

Posted on

What is Agentic AI?

What is Agentic Ai?

Agentic AI is an AI system that can autonomously plan, make decisions, take actions, and work toward a goal with minimal human intervention.

Unlike a traditional AI chatbot that simply responds to prompts, an Agentic AI behaves more like a digital worker that can:

  1. Understand a goal.
  2. Break it into tasks.
  3. Decide what to do next.
  4. Use tools (APIs, databases, web searches, software).
  5. Evaluate results.
  6. Continue working until the goal is achieved.

Traditional AI vs Agentic AI

Traditional AI Agentic AI
Answers questions Completes tasks
One prompt → one response Multi-step reasoning
Waits for instructions Can decide next actions
Limited memory/context Maintains state and goals
Doesn't interact much with systems Can use tools and APIs

Example

Traditional AI

You ask:

"Find me suppliers in Canada."

AI gives you a list.

Agentic AI

You ask:

"Find suppliers in Canada, compare them, create an Excel sheet, and email me the best 10."

The agent can:

  • Search the web
  • Extract supplier data
  • Compare pricing
  • Generate Excel
  • Send email
  • Report completion

without needing step-by-step instructions.


Core Components of an Agentic AI

1. LLM (Brain)

Examples:

  • OpenAI GPT models
  • Anthropic Claude
  • Google Gemini

Handles reasoning and decision-making.

2. Memory

Stores:

  • Previous actions
  • User preferences
  • Task progress

3. Planning

Creates execution plans such as:

Goal: Sync suppliers from Focus X to ERPNext

1. Fetch suppliers from Focus
2. Validate data
3. Create supplier records
4. Sync contacts
5. Sync addresses
6. Log results
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

4. Tools

Can interact with:

  • APIs
  • Databases
  • ERP systems
  • Email
  • Web browsers

5. Reflection

Checks whether the task succeeded and retries if needed.


Example Relevant to Your ERPNext Work

Suppose you want:

"Sync suppliers from Focus X to ERPNext."

A normal integration script simply runs predefined code.

An Agentic AI could:

  1. Check Focus X API.
  2. Detect new suppliers.
  3. Map fields automatically.
  4. Identify missing GST data.
  5. Create Supplier, Contact, and Address in ERPNext.
  6. Retry failed records.
  7. Generate a sync report.
  8. Notify the admin of issues.

This starts looking like an intelligent integration assistant rather than a simple script.


Popular Agentic AI Frameworks

  • LangGraph
  • CrewAI
  • AutoGen
  • OpenAI Platform Agents
  • PydanticAI

Simple Definition

Agentic AI is AI that doesn't just answer questions—it can independently plan, decide, and execute actions to achieve a goal.

Think of it as the difference between:

  • ChatGPT → "Tell me how to do it."
  • Agentic AI → "I'll do it for you and let you know when it's done."

Top comments (0)