Agentic AI is not just another iteration of automation or generative AI. Agentic AI systems can autonomously manage complex tasks, optimize processes, and proactively identify opportunities or risks, reducing the need for constant human oversight. This autonomy allows businesses to respond more quickly to changing market conditions, improve decision-making, and allocate human resources to higher-value activities.
Most haven't even defined what they want their AI agents to do. The networking hardware manufacturer found in its 2025 AI Readiness Index that most companies are planning to deploy additional AI agents in the next few years, and 86 percent expect it to improve employee productivity within three years, but those expectations don't necessarily match the reality of what it takes for such an initiative to succeed.
For all the hype around blockchain, many enterprises remain hesitant to make the leap. The hesitation is not about whether blockchain has potential. It is about risk. Most blockchain projects today require committing to a single chain, which is placing a long-term bet on a rapidly shifting market. If the chosen chain fails, becomes too expensive to operate on or is outpaced by competitors, that investment could quickly unravel.
Enterprise customers clearly don't agree, or at least they didn't in January, when analysts spoke of tepid sales figures. Many biz users felt the 57 percent higher average purchase price and a lack of killer apps just didn't tick the box. When we looked again in July, the situation wasn't any better. Businesses didn't care about exclusive features such as Recall.
AI hype is following a well-worn path. During the dot-com boom, we were promised the internet would bring an overnight revolution. While it was revolutionary, some changes arrived quickly, but most unfolded over years, marked as much by failures and false starts as by lasting breakthroughs. I was at Inbound in San Francisco last week, and the AI hype was overwhelming. Conversations were either focused solely on the tactical use of AI or, interestingly, on reframing AI in our minds.