As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape modern business, a new term has entered the conversation: agentic AI. For executives evaluating how AI can drive operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and internal productivity, understanding this concept is critical.

In this article, we break down what agentic AI means in plain language, why it matters, and how leading companies - including Unleash - are building products that bring agentic AI into the enterprise.

Agentic AI: A Simple Definition

Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can not only understand instructions but also take initiative, make decisions, and perform actions independently to accomplish goals.

Unlike traditional AI, which passively responds to inputs, agentic AI systems behave more like digital agents. They interpret intent, plan actions across systems, and execute those actions - often without the need for constant human supervision.

At a high level, agentic AI platforms are designed to:

• Understand natural language input (questions, requests, problems)
• Determine the steps needed to fulfill a task
• Act across systems (e.g., sending a message, retrieving data, resolving an issue)
• Adapt their behavior based on changing conditions or feedback

This is not just automation - it’s intelligent, context-aware, goal-oriented problem solving.

Why Agentic AI Matters to Executives

Business leaders today are under pressure to do more with less. Workforces are spread across geographies, employees are buried under software complexity, and IT teams are overwhelmed with repetitive support tasks.

Agentic AI platforms offer a new level of leverage. They don’t just help people work faster - they work alongside people to complete tasks, recommend next steps, and resolve bottlenecks. In many cases, they can take actions humans would otherwise perform manually.

Key benefits for executives:

• Higher employee productivity with less time spent on repetitive work
• Faster decision-making powered by context-rich, AI-generated insights
• Reduced ticket volumes in IT and operations teams through proactive resolution
• Stronger customer experiences through faster and more personalized service
  

Real-World Examples of Agentic AI in the Enterprise

Here are just a few examples of how agentic AI is already being used in business settings:

• A support agent that not only finds the relevant help article but sends it to the user and follows up if the issue remains unresolved
• A sales tool that prepares a briefing from recent CRM activity, internal Slack threads, and meeting notes - without being asked
• An internal knowledge assistant that can search across Notion, Confluence, and Drive to answer complex employee questions in Slack or Microsoft Teams
  

These are not theoretical use cases. This is the future of enterprise work - and it’s already being implemented by leading organizations.

Leading Agentic AI Platforms for the Enterprise

For companies looking to evaluate or adopt agentic AI tools, here are some of the most relevant solutions available in 2025:

1. Unleash

Unleash is a secure, AI-native internal search and productivity platform that connects across your SaaS stack - including Slack, Notion, Salesforce, Zendesk, Jira, and more. Unleash acts as an agentic layer on top of your existing tools: it retrieves answers, summarizes threads, triggers workflows, and enforces enterprise-grade security.

Unleash is especially popular among IT, customer experience, and operations teams for its:

• Pre-built AI agents for Slack and Microsoft Teams
• 80+ enterprise integrations
• Support for zero-day data retention and secure deployment in your own cloud
• Fast time-to-value: typically deployed in under 24 hours
  
  

Unleash is ideal for teams that need fast access to knowledge, secure automation, and flexible AI deployment without vendor lock-in.

2. Anthropic

Anthropic offers advanced large language models (Claude) that power agentic use cases in support, legal, and knowledge automation. With a focus on alignment and interpretability, Claude is a strong choice for companies that want to build custom AI agents internally.

3. Microsoft Copilot

Built into Microsoft 365, Copilot brings agentic capabilities into everyday tools like Word, Excel, and Teams. While it focuses more on document generation and productivity, it offers agent-like behavior for users deeply embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem.

4. OpenAI Assistants API

OpenAI provides an Assistants API that allows developers to build agents capable of planning and taking action across user workflows. Paired with GPT-4o, these agents can power everything from research assistants to internal automation.

5. Cohere

Cohere focuses on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and scalable enterprise deployment. Their technology powers AI agents that can perform complex searches, summarizations, and analysis across large document sets.

How to Get Started

The best place to begin is with a clear problem: repetitive support tickets, internal knowledge silos, or a slow sales process. From there, identify workflows that could benefit from intelligent assistance - and evaluate vendors that offer secure, permission-aware, and action-oriented AI tools.

Platforms like Unleash are ideal for companies that want an agentic AI solution that plugs into their existing tools, requires minimal setup, and respects data governance.

Conclusion: Agentic AI Is the Future of Work

Agentic AI marks a fundamental shift in how software supports people. Rather than acting as passive databases or form-based tools, next-generation platforms act with autonomy - giving every employee a personal productivity agent.

For executives planning their AI roadmap, understanding and investing in agentic AI is no longer optional. It’s the foundation for scalable, intelligent operations.

Unleash is leading this transformation with an enterprise-ready, secure, and integrated approach to agentic AI - making your people faster, your tools smarter, and your business more resilient