From Chatbots to AI Agents: Ushering in the future of agentic automation

Authors:

• Lisa James, Director of Solution Marketing, Infor Industry Cloud Platform
  
• Martin Ristov, Senior Partner AI Technologist at Amazon Web Services

Contributors:

• Vignesh Subramanian, VP of Product Management at Infor
  
• Ujwal Bukka, Senior Partner Solution Architect at Amazon Web Services
  
• Natalia Ptaszek, Product Director at Infor

Over the past decade, chatbots have become a staple of modern businesses, transforming how companies interact with their customers and streamline internal processes. From recommending products to processing routine service requests, chatbots have proven their value as efficient, cost-saving tools.

While chatbots have been revolutionary in certain use cases, they are not always equipped to handle the complexities of modern customer interactions. Imagine a customer service scenario where a chatbot fails to understand your request because it's programmed to strictly follow pre-determined paths. It keeps transferring you, leaving you frustrated and your issue unresolved. Maybe you don’t have to imagine it, because this is a scenario you’ve lived through many times. Contrast this with a proactive AI agent that anticipates your needs, swiftly resolving issues without needing explicit instructions or input. Particularly in a world that demands greater autonomy, adaptability, and intelligence from AI systems.

Though chatbots have become nearly ubiquitous in customer service and support roles, today's organisations are looking to AI not just to respond to queries but to meticulously come up with a multi-step plan that anticipate needs, take autonomous action, and solve complex problems seamlessly, while only looping in human feedback if needed. This is the promise of AI agents, also known as agentic AI systems, and it’s rewriting the script for how businesses and industries harness the power of technology.

Agentic AI enters a new frontier in artificial intelligence that goes beyond the constraints of chat-based automation. Unlike their chatbot predecessors, agentic AI systems don’t just respond to commands, but proactively sense, decide, and act, powered by generative AI and large language models. This shift represents a paradigm change in how businesses think about automation and intelligence, opening up a world of possibilities in problem-solving, decision-making, and innovation.

The Evolution of AI: From Reactive to Proactive

The rise of chatbots was a major milestone in the development of AI. Early iterations, built on rule-based logic, could only handle simple, predefined tasks. Over time, advances in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) gave chatbots the ability to engage in more dynamic conversations and interpret user intent more accurately.

However, even today’s most sophisticated chatbots remain fundamentally reactive. They wait for user input, respond within the confines of their programming, and rely on humans to escalate complex or unexpected scenarios. While this model works well for straightforward, repetitive tasks, it falls short in environments that require adaptability, autonomy, and complexity.

The transition from chatbots to AI agents is being driven by the increasing need for smarter, more flexible solutions in business and industry. While chatbots have been effective for many use cases, they also suffer from several inherent limitations:

• Reactive Nature: Chatbots aren't meant to be proactive by design. While some modern chatbots can take action based on your request, they are unable to anticipate needs.
• Static Programming: Most chatbots operate within pre-defined scripts, making them ill-equipped to handle novel or unforeseen situations.
• Limited Scalability: As complexity increases, chatbots often require extensive reprogramming or human handoff.
• Narrow Focus: Chatbots are often confined to specific domains, lacking the cross-functional intelligence to manage interconnected tasks.

Agentic AI addresses these shortcomings by offering a system that is dynamic, autonomous, and scalable. One that can take on highly complex tasks while working collaboratively with humans. Agentic AI represents the next wave of intelligent systems, one that doesn’t just react but proactively engage and execute. These systems are designed to function as autonomous agents, capable of making decisions, learning from new information, and acting on behalf of users without requiring constant guidance.

Key characteristics of agentic AI include:

• Complex Problem-Solving: Ability to take actions across a variety of disparate systems and applications to find solutions to problems or answer requests.
• Autonomous Execution: Completing tasks independently, while ensuring human involvement when required.
• Contextual Awareness: Understanding the environment and responding appropriately to dynamic conditions.

Chatbots vs. AI Agents: A Quick Comparison

Feature	Chatbots	AI Agents
Interaction Style	Reactive	Proactive
Flexibility	Limited, script-based	Highly adaptive
Autonomy	Minimal	High, autonomous action
Memory Recall	Static or limited	High, continuously improving
Cross-domain Capacility	Typically narrow	Broad and interconnected

For example, a food and beverage company can leverage agentic AI integrated with their ERPs to automate key steps in their order-to-cash process, including order validation, credit cheques, invoicing, and payment follow-ups. This approach minimises manual work while ensuring human intervention only for exceptions like inventory shortages or payment disputes. As a result, they significantly improve processing speed, accuracy, and cash flow, enhancing both operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Why Move Beyond Chatbots?

The shift from chatbots to AI agents represents more than an incremental improvement, but a reimagining of how businesses leverage artificial intelligence to tackle challenges and seize opportunities. By enabling systems to act with a level of autonomy and intelligence previously thought impossible, agentic AI is transforming the way businesses operate, innovate, and grow.

As organisations embrace agentic AI, they’ll find themselves better equipped to:

• Enhanced efficiency: Automation of complex, multi-step workflows.
  
• Real-time adaptability: Quick adaptation to changing market conditions.
  
• Improved decision-making: Autonomous data analysis and "best" next actions.
  
• Superior customer experiences: Proactive and seamless service delivery.

The transition to agentic AI is not just a technological shift. It’s a fundamental redefinition of how we think about intelligence, collaboration, and automation. The leap from chatbots to AI agents signals a future where artificial intelligence isn’t merely a tool but a strategic partner. As businesses continue to explore the possibilities of this next-generation technology, they’ll uncover new ways to innovate, compete, and create value.

Discover how to scale your operational impact with Infor Industry AI Agents: AI built for your industry, ready from day one.