How Agentic AI is Impacting Global Enterprise Automation

With the rise of AI, a paradigm is emerging that is already revolutionising enterprise automation.

Whilst Gen AI has dominated headlines with its ability to create content and assist with tasks, a more sophisticated form of AI - known as agentic AI - is quietly transforming how businesses operate across sectors worldwide.

In a report titled "Automation 2.0: The Rise of Intelligent AI Agents," research firm GlobalData has found compelling evidence that agentic AI is now becoming the cornerstone of enterprise automation strategies.

This development marks an evolution from traditional automation approaches, offering organisations capabilities to navigate and optimise their operations in increasingly complex technological environments.

Research like this proves important  for businesses across the world as they grapple with mounting pressures to improve efficiency, reduce costs and enhance customer experiences in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

What sets agentic AI apart from its predecessors, is its departure from conventional automation tools, equipped with advanced reasoning capabilities and the ability to act autonomously within defined parameters - characteristics that are proving invaluable across industries ranging from healthcare to financial services.

Redefining automation: insights from GlobalData

Agentic AI is becoming vital to enterprise automation, according to GlobalData’s recent report, “Automation 2.0: The Rise of Intelligent AI Agents.”

The research explains that this technology is now crucial because it enables organisations to navigate complex tech environments with agility and precision.

“Agentic AI represents a paradigm shift from traditional automation,” says Kiran Raj, Practice Head of Disruptive Tech at GlobalData.

The report found that from integrating advanced reasoning and autonomous action, agentic AI offers measurable outcomes such as reduced costs, higher efficiency and improved customer experiences.

For example, in healthcare, it can alleviate administrative burdens by automating patient data management.

Whilst in financial services, it streamlines transactions by adapting to real-time market changes.

“Whether reducing administrative burdens in healthcare, streamlining financial transactions, or optimising energy systems, Agentic AI delivers measurable outcomes – higher efficiency, reduced costs and superior customer experiences”, Kiran continues.

GlobalData highlights several innovations driving this shift:

Microsoft
Microsoft’s Copilot Studio that integrates with Dynamics 365 has become well known for its skill to optimise workflows in sales and customer service.

For instance, Dow anticipates saving millions of dollars on shipping operations in the first year of using Copilot, proving the tool's potential to drive efficiency and cost savings in large enterprises.

SAP
Meanwhile, SAP's Joule, leveraging collaborative AI agents and an advanced Knowledge Graph, has streamlined financial processes and dispute management. 

The technology's potential to automate complex financial tasks and improve decision-making processes is noteworthy for businesses seeking to enhance their financial operations.

UiPath
Additionally, UiPath combines robotic process automation (RPA) with agentic AI through its Agent Builder tool to enhance flexibility across sectors like logistics and finance.

The company's vision for ‘agentic automation’ aims to tackle complex, differentiated use cases across industries.

This integration of RPA and AI agents promises to extend automation to tasks previously requiring human intervention, potentially transforming how businesses approach process automation.

Industry-wide applications further demonstrate the impact of agentic AI.

In media planning, for example, Dentsu employs Azure-based predictive copilot technology to reduce insight generation time by 90%, cutting costs while improving accuracy.

Furthermore, in the telecommunications sector, BT uses ServiceNow’s Now platform to automate customer service tasks, reducing resolution times to under a minute and paperwork by over half. 

Global adoption and investment momentum

With the growing adoption of agentic AI, investment from both enterprises and venture capitalists is being attracted.

GlobalData draws on this, reporting a US$1.8bn in venture funding across 69 deals in 2024 alone.

Notable examples include US$220m raised by Paris-based startup H and US$97.2m secured by New York’s Emergence AI.

Further exploring this evolution, Gartner underscores the potential of agentic AI to impact industries globally, predicting that by 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously using agentic systems.

This means that unlike Gen AI, which relies on human prompts for outputs like text or images, agentic AI acts independently within defined parameters.

It can analyse data sets in real time, make decisions based on context, and adapt strategies dynamically—capabilities that are particularly valuable in supply chain management and financial services.

Therefore, in financial services specifically, agentic AI could uplift compliance monitoring by identifying anomalies in real time or enhance customer engagement through personalised financial coaching tailored to individual behaviours.

McKinsey estimates that integrating such technologies could reduce forecasting errors by 50% while improving lead times and cutting costs by up to 20%.

The role of major tech players

With tech giants behind it, agentic AI’s capabilities are advancing quickly. 

A prime example is Google’s recently launched Gemini 2.0, its most advanced multimodal model designed for the ‘agentic era.’

According to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, Gemini 2.0 enables new types of autonomous agents capable of reasoning multiple steps ahead while integrating seamlessly into tools like Search and the Gemini app.

He noted in a blogpost: "Over the last year, we have been investing in developing more agentic models, meaning they can understand more about the world around you, think multiple steps ahead and take action on your behalf, with your supervision."

Another company on a similar track is Salesforce, who has also expanded its offerings with Agentforce, an enterprise-grade platform aimed at automating sales and customer service processes through intelligent agents.

Similarly, Microsoft has introduced 10 autonomous agents targeting tasks in accounting and support functions.

These developments align with Gartner’s observation that agentic AI represents a spectrum of autonomy ranging from task-specific systems to fully independent agents capable of learning from their environments.

As the company summarises: “Agentic AI will eliminate the need to interact with websites and applications. Why bother when your AI agent can do it for you?”

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