Book Review: Agentic Artificial Intelligence-Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work, and Life

I shared recently shared an article by Bernard Marr which explains the differences between AI Agents and Agentic AI. A new book has been released as a collaboration between several contributors that come from diverse backgrounds, such as AI researchers, business executives, high-level developers, and hands-on consultants who have implemented AI agents across industries worldwide.

Co-authors include legends like Tom Davenport, the pioneer of "Competing on Analytics"; David De Cremer, the award-winning author shaking up AI leadership; Jochen Wirtz, one of the world's most published experts on service strategy; and Phil Fersht, the analyst who launched the RPA industry. These are the minds steering the AI economy—across boardrooms, classrooms, and codebases.

The book "Agentic Artificial Intelligence - Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work, and Life" by Pascal Bornet et al. provides fresh views where the market is with agents, and it also talks about the significant gap between promise and reality.

According to the authors, over 95% of AI agent implementations fail due to poor planning, rushed initiatives, or lack of integration with real-world systems. This failure rate underscores the need for a robust framework to ensure successful deployment.

FIVE-LEVEL AGENTIC INTELLIGENCE FRAMEWORK

The book introduces a proprietary five-level "Agentic Intelligence Framework," which provides a practical roadmap for deploying AI agents effectively. This framework is backed by case studies and data showing dramatic improvements in business processes, including:

⭐Process acceleration by up to 90%.

⭐Cost reductions exceeding 55%.

⭐Customer satisfaction gains of over 40%.

The framework emphasizes and helps organizations to have a structured way to deploy AI agents. The framework emphasizes several aspects such as:

🎯Identifying high-value use cases.

🎯Integrating agents into existing workflows.

🎯Ensuring scalability and adaptability. The framework is supported by real-world case studies demonstrating significant improvements in efficiency, cost reduction, and customer satisfaction.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE AGENT ECONOMY

The authors predict the rise of an "Agent-to-Agent Economy," where autonomous AI systems interact with each other to negotiate, transact, and collaborate without human intervention. This economy is expected to redefine industries and create new business models. Large vendors such as Microsoft, AWS, Salesforce, Oracle etc. are striving to create stickiness through having partners and customers to build agents on top of their platform. This stickiness helps vendors to retain their clients as the technologies that are deployed are still proprietary to each platform.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS FROM THE BOOK

The book emphasizes the importance of human-AI collaboration rather than replacement. It advocates for a shift from traditional task-based roles to workflow-based systems where humans guide and oversee AI agents. For successful adoption of agentic AI, organizations must undergo cultural changes, including:

• Moving from control-based management to delegation-based leadership.

• Embracing collaborative environments where humans and AI work together seamlessly.

The book also addresses ethical concerns surrounding agentic AI, such as privacy, accountability, and bias in decision-making. It calls for responsible deployment practices to ensure fairness and transparency.

Beyond business applications, the book explores how agentic AI will impact society at large—transforming education, healthcare, personal productivity, and even interpersonal relationships.

CONCLUSIONS

Each and every one of us are responsible to understand where AI advancements take us. I recently read that the CEO of a well-known organization does not let anybody be hired before the organization evaluates whether the position could be replaced with AI. This is a pretty drastic development, and I expect this to continue in an accelerated pace. It is clear in our everyday life that AI has become part of what we do. Our iPhone AI feature summarizes us the main things so we can see in one quick look if we need to react on something. Solutions such as Intacct financial software solution from Sage has embedded AI technology by offering a dedicated AI-powered productivity assistant (Sage Copilot) to make users everyday life easier.

Agentic Artificial Intelligence is a forward-thinking guide that combines theoretical insights with practical strategies for leveraging AI agents effectively. It is particularly valuable for business leaders, innovators, and policymakers seeking to understand the opportunities and challenges posed by this emerging technology. The book provides actionable advice on deploying AI agents responsibly while maximizing their potential to reinvent industries and improve lives.

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Yours,

Dr. Petri I. Salonen