Since its inception, AI has been full of false claims, driven in part by widespread knowledge gaps. People without technical backgrounds can have a hard time distinguishing terms like generator AI, symbolic AI, or agent AI. Technology companies are taking advantage of this by claiming they provide features that they don’t actually offer. As AI becomes more and more ubiquitous, companies that perform even the most oddest statistical analyses to make things more complicated are suddenly rebranded as “machine learning companies.” This growth trend has made potential customers uncertain that different “AI” solutions actually possible.
As agent AI comes into play, we already see companies using the term in a similarly inaccurate way. In fact, many companies using simple “chatbots” are branded as agent AI providers. Agent AI represents an important advancement in AI technology, but it is important to understand exactly what it means. True Agent AI is a delicate, 4-way dance that balances the elements of the generator AI, symbolic AI, and descriptive mathematics and nonlinear optimization engine within an agent-based presentation.
Rearrange modern AI misconceptions
The definition of “artificial intelligence” is broad, but considering what is needed to make it useful and robust, there is a need for an ensemble of technology. Chatbots can search the internet to summarise and reflux the findings, but they cannot validate the data contained in large language models (LLMs). Nor can we reason with the subtle, human-like judgments needed to generate reliable insights. Creating AI solutions with transformative business impact requires a variety of components that come together to form a larger whole. This complex balance combines, analyzes and optimizes end-user trustworthy data at a scale beyond human capabilities, supporting inference in a human-like way. While basic tools can technically meet the minimum definition of “artificial intelligence,” today’s businesses need solutions that can achieve more.
Think of it like a mass market car company trying to mimic the look of a luxury brand. They may be able to reflect surface-level aesthetics in the distance, but examining details and material quality (not to mention what is under the hood) reveals the truth. While it is equally easy to find people who use “agent AI” as a marketing term that doesn’t have the ability to back up, customers don’t always have the technical expertise to identify the level of AI maturity they are offering. You might argue that your business is an “optimization company”, but can you actually perform constraint-based nonlinear optimizations? Or use a linear regression model to perform basic predictions? Worse, are you using a program that can handle only four of the 40 constraints needed to model a particular problem? Anyone can argue that they provide “AI-based” solutions, but the gap in results is important.
This is important to understand as you move to the next stage of AI development and deployment. Agent AI promises to be an innovative technology. It effectively democratizes powerful AI-based analytics and access to advanced optimization capabilities.
How Agent AI works and why it is important
Agent AI has four important elements: SymbolicAI, Explanatory Mathematics and Optimization Engine, Generation AI, and the “agent” itself:
- Symbolic AI is the “deep reasoning” part of the brain It is responsible for something like logical reasoning in the form of adductive and deductive reasoning. Solve problems in ways that simulate the human brain using logic-based programming and theorem probing techniques.
- Powerful High-Dimensional Explanation Mathematics and Optimization Engine It is used to engage in mathematical calculations of the weight required to process huge amounts of data and generate permeable insights.
- Generation AI is “Thinly sliced” function Patterns had to be identified across the large dataset and extrapolated from them.
- Agent AI is a conversation component This allows machines to engage people in a human-like way, mitigate engagement and democratize access to advanced analytics and insights. This is the team’s “quarterback” and coordinates actions system-wide.
Agent AI is like a delicate dance on all four sides, and agents are leaders. Without an agent to synthesize and optimize data from the analytics engine below, users can access a huge amount of information, but there is little way to organize or utilize it. Agent AI transforms complex analytics and optimized data into a democratically accessible user interface, allowing business users to access useful and actionable insights without the need for advanced data analytics background. Generation AI, symbolic AI, and mathematics and optimization engines all have their own individual uses, but agents are the crucial fourth piece that allows all four elements to work in a unique and harmonious way.
Before Agent AI, the agent’s role was played by human operators. And it is simply impossible for humans to process something close to this amount of information. Today, AI agents supported by the other three parts of the “brain” can analyze a vast set of data that is affected by numerous constraints. These agents also fully understand how each component affects others, creating the optimization insights needed to drive business forward today. Also, as presented by human-like AI agents capable of reasoning and conversation, these key business insights become increasingly available to users without advanced technical expertise.
True Agent AI is revolutionizing business optimization
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), NVIDIA (NVDA) +6.43%)) CEO Jensen Huang predicted that 30% of companies will make meaningful contributions to their businesses by the end of 2025. That may sound like a bold prediction, but for those who have spent a lot of time working with Agent AI, it’s simply a long, long-truth approval. The confluence of iconic AI, generative AI, and modern explanatory mathematics and optimization engines dance along with the helpful guidance of AI agents, making business optimization insights more important than ever before more accessible. True Agent AI is an innovative technology that does not employ the risk of being left behind.
