AI Agents: Not a Fork in the AI Road, But an Inflection-Point

How right C.S Lewis was! Day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different.

- Abhesh Kumar

Today, as we look around, we can feel that sense of uncanny evolution. Propelled by tiny, day-to-day, incremental jumps—today we have come quite far on the road of business-empowered-with-technology. We are surrounded by systems that have been steadily improving for years—systems designed to solve complex problems, increase efficiency, and help businesses thrive. But what if these systems could not only follow instructions but actively learn, adapt, and make decisions on their own? This is the promise and potential of AI agents. While they are often seen as the next big leap, AI agents are not a radical departure from the past; rather, they are the natural extension of decades of innovation in software design. They are, in my reckoning, a key moment in the evolutionary path of AI. There may be nothing path-breaking about them as drawing from architectural principles like microservices and modular systems, AI agents are built on familiar, proven foundations. But they do push the path forward. The real breakthrough isn’t about reinventing the wheel—it’s about leveraging what we already know to its fullest potential, enabling new capabilities that were, once, beyond reach.

Let's understand this from the gaze of some recent numbers as well. As per 'Unlocking the Value of Generative Al' by Capgemini in July 2024,

• 82% of companies plan AI agent adoption by 2026.

• Generative AI adoption rose from 6% in 2023 to 24% in 2024.

• 71% of organizations expect AI to drive automation