Agentic AI: More Human Than Automation

InnovationAgentic AI: More Human Than AutomationByMonisha Somji,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)May 12, 2026, 09:45am EDTMonisha Somji | Senior Digital Transformation & AI Executive. gettyThere is a story being told about artificial intelligence (AI) that goes something like this: First, AI answered our questions, then it wrote our content, and now—with agentic AI—it will execute our work. Each step is framed as one step further from human involvement and one step closer to a world where machines replace the people who once performed those tasks.I want to tell you a different story. A recent Stanford Digital Economy Lab study of 51 companies that deployed AI found that outcomes varied not based on the sophistication of the technology, but on the quality of human leadership, process design and organizational readiness surrounding it. Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, citing the same research, put it plainly: The businesses making the most progress are not those with better technology; they are those prepared to adapt how their people operate around it.That finding is the lens through which to understand agentic AI. This is not the technology that pushes humans furthest from the work. It is the technology that demands the most from them.In other words, agentic AI does not take the human out of the work. Rather, it takes the mechanical out of the human and gives people back the capacity to do what only they can do.From Answering To Acting—And Why That Raises The Human StakesGenerative AI, anchored by ChatGPT's arrival in 2022, gave organizations a powerful way to access knowledge faster. But it was still a response machine. You prompted, it produced. Every outcome still required a human to initiate, interpret and decide.Agentic AI removes that requirement. It can be given a goal—not a prompt, a...