Definition
Agentic
AI that takes actions and completes tasks, not just answers questions.
From the episode “Turn Spreadsheets Into Apps Without a Single Prompt: AI Workflows for Founders With Gainable”How founders on the podcast use it
AI systems that take multi-step actions toward a goal rather than returning a single response.
Tokenomics Will Wreck Your Margins: The AI Model Routing Workflow That Cuts SpendAI that can take multi-step actions, self-correct, and complete tasks across multiple tool calls without constant human direction. Useful in hardware only once a validation foundation exists.
The Physicist Building a Compiler for the Real World | Hugo Nordell, EncubeHear it on the podcast3 episodes
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Related terms in Agents & Automation
Agent and agent teamSoftware that takes actions on your behalf, coordinated across a workflow or an entire business chain.Agent AssistThird Way's tool that supports live human agents during calls.Agent HarnessA set of components — context, governance, tools, and infrastructure — provided to an LLM so it can do specialized work effectively. The harness is what turns general-purpose AI into a trustworthy production resource.Agent swarmMultiple AI agents running simultaneously on different tasks, often with sub-agents.Agentic AIAI that acts as an agent: it interprets a goal, plans the steps, uses tools like browsers, code, or APIs, and adjusts based on what happens until the task is done.Agentic AutomationAutomation that uses autonomous AI agents to execute end-to-end processes, including reasoning, decision-making, and self-correction, without scripted workflows.Agentic commerceShopping where an AI agent handles discovery, comparison, and sometimes checkout, rather than the customer browsing a store directly.Agentic economyAn economy where autonomous AI agents transact, negotiate, and execute on behalf of businesses.