Characterized by agency, autonomy, and the capacity to initiate actions independently in pursuit of goals rather than merely responding to instructions or external stimuli. In human contexts, an agentic person is self-directed, intentional, and capable of making choices that meaningfully shape their environment. The term originates in psychology and social theory, where “agency” contrasts with passivity or structural determinism, describing the ability to act rather than simply be acted upon.
In artificial intelligence and automation discourse, agentic describes systems that operate with increasing independence, such as software agents that plan tasks, make decisions, call tools, or adapt strategies without step-by-step human control. An agentic AI might schedule workflows, write and deploy code, or coordinate other systems autonomously, shifting the human role from operator to supervisor. The term signals a qualitative change from tools that merely execute commands to entities that exhibit goal-seeking behavior, raising both opportunities for productivity and concerns about oversight, alignment, and responsibility.