AI agents, as you've probably noticed, are suddenly everywhere.

Leading tech companies have been releasing agentic AI tools in droves, motivated by investor pressure to show returns on enormous AI investments. Smaller businesses, meanwhile, seem to be embracing these tools with similar verve.

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Now, Gartner predicts that the role of AI agents within businesses will only become more pronounced. In its latest Data & Analytics Predictions report, the consulting firm forecasts that half of all business decisions will be fully automated or at least partially augmented by AI agents within the next two years.

"Gartner recommends [data and analytics] leaders work with business stakeholders to identify and prioritize decisions critical to the success of the organization, and those that can benefit from more effective application of analytics and AI," the authors write in the report.

Tech developers are marketing agents as a more sophisticated variety of chatbots. Agents can augment human creativity and productivity by interacting with apps and other digital tools to complete tasks on behalf of individuals and organizations.

AI in the boardroom

It's not just the little, day-to-day decisions that will increasingly be offloaded to AI. 

By 2029, according to the Gartner report, one-in-ten executive boards worldwide will turn to AI (including agents, presumably) for assistance when making substantial business decisions. While the report doesn't get into details about what such automated top-down decision-making could look like in practice, it recommends that board members get ahead of this trend by starting to draft policies around the use and governance of AI. 

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"This will enable them to use AI as a strategic advisor while maintaining trust and control," the authors write.

The report doesn't argue that the growing role of AI within business decision-making processes will negate the need for humans in the loop. On the contrary, it emphasizes continual human oversight to ensure high-quality data and effective governance.

Speaking of human oversight, the new Gartner report also stressed the importance of upskilling to prepare businesses for the ongoing surge of AI agents. Over the next two years, the firm predicts, the businesses that place a premium on training executives in AI literacy will see revenues of up to 20% higher than those that do not.

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The Gartner report also recommended that data and analytics professionals prioritize effective management of synthetic data, develop generative AI models in-house (rather than paying for third-party services), and optimize model output (i.e., minimize hallucination).

The agent whiplash

Reading Gartner's new report, one gets the sense that AI agents, which most people had never heard of just a year or two ago, are suddenly one of the technological cornerstones of the private sector. Many business leaders, therefore, are probably feeling whiplashed as they try to keep up with the pace of innovation and deployment.

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A recent report from Cisco, for example, found that close to three-quarters of all customer service interactions with tech vendors could become automated by AI agents by 2028. The technology was also highlighted by Forrester as one of the emerging technologies most poised to transform the business landscape.

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