Top Things You Need to Know About Agentic AI

What if your entire marketing program, from audience identification to channel follow‑ups, ran itself? Not by relying on basic if‑then rules, but with intelligent agents that adapt, plan, and execute in real time. 

That gap between today’s AI assistants and fully autonomous workflows is what Gartner calls the “AI agency gap,” i.e., the space between current AI capabilities and truly autonomous, human-like intelligence.

That’s where Agentic AI steps in—it closes the AI agency gap. In this blog, we’ll explore what Agentic AI is, how it works and how businesses can adopt it responsibly to achieve dynamic goals. Buckle up, because these insights might just change how you work.

What is Agentic AI And How Does It Work?

Agentic AI is a software entity that behaves like an autonomous agent. It marks a shift from the days when technology simply followed instructions and handled basic, pre-programmed tasks like setting up email filters. Agentic AI on the other hand displays goal-seeking behavior and continuously adapts its reasoning model.

No wonder, then, 37% of senior tech leaders at major enterprises are already leveraging Agentic AI, while 93% of them are highly interested in this technology.

The Power of AI Orchestration

An AI orchestration framework allows multiple intelligent models, components and agents to collaborate, each specialized in a task such as segmentation, content generation or performance optimization. This helps marketers scale campaigns without micro-managing every detail. 

MaxAI Assistant, HCL Unica+’s always-on marketing assistant for real-time decisions and optimization helps improve the marketing team’s productivity by reducing manual work. Let’s understand this with an example.

Suppose, you prompt MaxAI Assistant, “boost recoveries for high-value cart abandoners from the last 7 days.”

• Understanding Intent: MaxAI Assistant understands the three conditions—  “boost recoveries,” “high-value” (threshold defined previously in guardrails) and target the carts that were abandoned in the last 7 days.”
• Segmentation Agent: Dynamically queries your CDP to isolate that high‑value cohort with zero SQL required.
• Content Optimizer Agent: Generates two tailored messages using our prompt‑engineering templates.
• Insights Agent: Provides data-driven insights to optimize for the best engagement channel and timing.

Here, AI agents assist in creating the right segment and generating customized messaging, while keeping the human-in-the-loop to make critical decisions and maintain oversight. 

The result? Higher conversions, better customer experiences and marketing that adapts in real time.

What Are the Business Benefits of Agentic AI?  

Nearly 90% of senior leaders at major enterprises believe Agentic AI can greatly enhance their business processes. It also has the potential to empower teams by streamlining workflows and easing the execution of complex projects. According to Gartner, by 2028, intelligent agents will autonomously make 15% of day-to-day work decisions.

Enterprises are swiftly seeing potential and are turning to Agentic AI. Here are its major benefits for businesses today:

1) Hyper-personalization at scale: Deloitte states that organizations are piloting Agentic AI frameworks, which could orchestrate entire customer journeys upon maturity. These systems have the ability to generate context-aware, real-time personalization at scale based on customers’ historical behavior and intent. Agentic AI enables “segment of one” precision that feels organic and relevant. 

2) End-to-end campaign automation: Agentic AI shifts marketers from manual task execution to strategic oversight. Campaigns that are multi-layered, significantly benefit from these systems as they can automate the full lifecycle of a campaign via MaxAI Workbench and in-built agents.  

3) Improved customer service and operational costs: According to Gartner, by 2029, Agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues without human intervention and slash operational costs by nearly 30%. These agents go beyond just responding to queries or providing tailored advice; they can proactively anticipate issues, take action and deliver hyper-personalized support experiences.

For instance, AT&T, a telecom company, implemented intelligent, autonomous chat agents that go beyond 24/7 support to run network diagnostics, identify issues, and even schedule technician appointments without human input. They've already reported reduced operational expenses by 15%.

So, what’s holding some companies back from adopting Agentic AI today?

What Are the Challenges in Leveraging Agentic AI?

While Agentic AI is promising, it does come with its set of challenges. The fact that it can take on autonomous roles, organizations must be aware and wary of the risks that can emerge from over-reliance.

Some significant challenges include:

• Model drift: Over time, customer behaviors change, impacting the accuracy of AI models. When models continue to operate on outdated data, they risk targeting irrelevant audiences, leading to wasted spend.
• Hallucinations: Agentic AI has the potential to generate false or misleading information, posing a challenge to build trust and reliability. Unsupervised prompts, in marketing contexts, could look like the invention of non-existent offers, which could severely damage the system’s credibility.
• Compliance gaps: In terms of compliance, particularly pertaining to data privacy and consent, agent-to-agent executions in the form of messaging customers without verified permissions can lead to fines and brand damage.

With the recent EU AI Act imposing legal penalties or fines costing up to 7% of global revenue for non-compliance, securing your Agentic AI is a top priority. 

Implementing Agentic AI Safely: Guidelines and Best Practices  

So, what can businesses do to manage the challenges associated with Agentic AI while still embracing its full potential?

It starts with getting the fundamentals right, with data, ethics, people and process. Here are a few guidelines and best practices to keep in mind while deploying or integrating Agentic AI systems for your business.

HCL Unica+: Your Launchpad for Trusted Agentic AI

Agentic AI is powerful, but without the right tech foundation, how do you put it into practice? 

For many businesses, the biggest hurdle isn’t ambition; it’s seamless integration. In fact, over 35% of tech leaders cite integration with existing systems as a top concern.

To solve this problem, we introduce:

HCL Unica+: MarTech for the Intelligence Economy

HCL Unica+ is the next-generation marketing platform built especially for the Intelligence Economy—where context, trust and speed define success. 

It's an AI-first, precision marketing engine that empowers brands to deliver real-time, hyper-personalized experiences at scale—turning every customer interaction into a growth opportunity.

Popular AI Agents of HCL Unica+

Agentic AI, at the end of the day, plays an important role in building customer relationships and forming deeper emotional connections between the organization and the customer. With an AI first architecture, modular agents, and built-in guardrails, HCL Unica+ is the safest, most scalable way to adopt Agentic AI. 

Ready to bridge the agency gap? Let’s show you what’s possible with HCL Unica+.