Rise of the agentic economy: trend paper for C‑level leaders

The shift towards agentic systems 

We are witnessing a fundamental shift in how individuals and organisations interact with digital technology. What used to be static, rule-based workflows are evolving into dynamic, goal-driven agentic systems. These AI agents are no longer just passive tools; they actively pursue objectives on behalf of their users. 

Unlike conventional AI-supported workflows, which follow predefined steps, agentic systems operate with intent. They respond to high-level goals like ‘ensure stock levels are maintained’ or ‘optimise recurring purchases for quality and price’. In your personal life, the goals might be ‘keep me healthy’ or ‘manage my finances so my bills are paid and any surplus is invested wisely’. 

This shift is being accelerated by the increasing complexity and speed of our personal and professional lives, creating an urgent need to delegate routine decisions to digital systems. 

The agentic economy – why now? 

Emails, meetings, logistics, financial planning, and more – daily life has become a barrage of information, obligations, and decisions. In the corporate world, global competition, digitisation, and rising expectations mean increasing pressure on businesses. In both spheres, the ability to offload routine tasks is becoming increasingly essential. 

We need to distinguish between two types of decisions: 

• Low-involvement decisions: Routine and repetitive (e.g. paying bills, renewing licences, replenishing supplies).
• High-involvement decisions: Strategic and emotional (e.g. innovation, partnerships, or planning a major life change). 

Agentic systems excel at managing low-involvement decisions, freeing humans to focus on what truly matters. 

Technological momentum 

AI capabilities are growing at an exponential rate; not 0.05% annual gains, but often 5–10% leaps per quarter. Recent testing using benchmarks like the Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) and the Graduate-Level Google-Proof Q&A Benchmark (GPQA) show that the latest models are now outperforming previous versions in reasoning and multi-step problem solving by substantial margins. 

The rise of the agent-as-a-customer 

As people and businesses increasingly delegate tasks to AI agents, these agents are beginning to act as decision-makers. Your future customer may be, not a human, but an algorithm. 

Agentic customers differ significantly from human customers: 

• They are rational, goal-driven, and data-focused. 
• They have no brand loyalty or emotional biases. 
• They make decisions in milliseconds based on data, ratings, and optimisation algorithms. 

This changes everything in terms of how businesses market their products, build services, and structure operations. 

Rethinking marketing and service design 

The rise of agentic systems is already transforming customer behaviour. Consumers are increasingly relying on digital agents to filter, evaluate, and even make decisions on their behalf, often without direct human input. This shift alters how customers interact with brands, prioritise products, and make purchasing choices. 

In this new landscape, businesses have to make a conscious strategic decision: either risk becoming invisible to agents or actively design for this new type of customer. A tiered strategy is essential: 

• Agent-facing (low-involvement) interactions: Need to be agent-optimised – API-accessible, transparent, fast, and reliable. 
• Human-facing (high-involvement) interactions: Need to be more human-centric than ever: memorable, emotionally engaging, and trust-building. 

As agents become the gatekeepers, access to the human end-user becomes more limited. Just as personal assistants shield high-net-worth individuals from noise, digital agents will increasingly act as filters for the mainstream population. 

The agentic shift is happening now 

The agentic economy is already being implemented at scale: 

• Gartner predicts that by 2029, agentic AI will autonomously handle 80% of standard customer service queries, reducing operational expenses by 30%. 
• A recent survey by PagerDuty found 51% of companies already have agents in production, with 78% planning adoption—and 90% of non-tech firms are on board. 
• Deloitte and EY have both launched platforms (Zora AI and EY.ai Agentic Platform) to automate finance and tax operations. 
• Workday’s Illuminate AI Agents are designed to autonomously manage HR, finance, and planning functions. 

Embrace the shift 

This is not a trend shimmering on some distant horizon – it’s already underway. Businesses that prepare now will benefit from first-mover advantage, attracting both human clients and their AI proxies. 

The central question for leadership is no longer whether agents will transform your industry, but how soon—and whether you're ready to adapt.