What is the difference between AI agents and agentic AI?
An AI agent is a single system where a model chooses actions and tools within limits to complete a task. Agentic AI is the broader design approach of building software around such agents, sometimes several cooperating.
The two terms are often used interchangeably, but the distinction helps when buying or building. An AI agent is a specific piece of software, for example a support agent that reads tickets, looks up orders and drafts replies. Agentic AI is the property of acting autonomously across steps, so a system can be more or less agentic. Asking how agentic a system is, and where a human approves, is more useful than asking whether it is an agent.