The Agentic Automation Revolution: How AI Agents Are Transforming Business and Government

In a significant shift from traditional automation, organizations across sectors are embracing “agentic automation”—a sophisticated approach where AI systems operate with greater autonomy to solve complex problems. This emerging technology promises to redefine how businesses and government agencies handle intricate workflows, potentially delivering unprecedented efficiency gains.

“Agentic automation is the next generation of automation,” explains Robbie Mackness, Vice President at UiPath, in a recent interview with FedScoop. “It’s about creating systems that can observe, think, plan, and act autonomously to accomplish complex tasks that previously required significant human intervention.”

Unlike conventional automation tools that follow rigid, predefined paths, agentic systems leverage large language models (LLMs) and other AI capabilities to navigate ambiguity, make decisions based on context, and adapt to changing conditions—much like human workers, but at machine scale and speed.

According to UiPath’s technical documentation, these systems combine the reasoning capabilities of foundation models with the precision of traditional robotic process automation (RPA). The result is AI agents that can “understand intent, break down complex tasks, navigate interfaces, and execute multi-step processes with minimal human oversight.”

The financial sector appears to be at the forefront of adoption. Bank Automation News reports that over 25% of financial institutions plan to deploy agentic AI solutions this year alone. These implementations range from customer service enhancements to complex back-office operations that previously required teams of specialized staff.

BlackLine, a financial operations platform provider, recently announced expanded agentic AI capabilities designed to modernize financial workflows. “Our agentic AI innovations are helping finance and accounting teams automate complex, judgment-intensive processes that were previously impossible to automate,” the company stated in a May 8 press release via GlobeNewswire.

The public sector is also exploring these technologies. Ashley Elizabeth Evans of the U.S. Navy highlighted in a FedScoop interview how agentic automation is being leveraged to streamline complex military logistics and administrative tasks, potentially freeing up personnel for mission-critical activities.

The recruitment industry stands to be transformed as well. A Forbes Business Council report indicates that agentic AI is “redefining the foundations of recruitment” by enabling systems that can independently screen candidates, conduct initial interviews, and make preliminary assessments with minimal human intervention.

Despite the enthusiasm, experts caution that successful implementation requires careful planning. “Organizations need to identify the right use cases—those complex enough to benefit from agentic capabilities but structured enough to be reliably automated,” notes Mackness in his FedScoop interview.

Security and governance concerns also remain paramount. As these systems gain greater autonomy, establishing appropriate oversight mechanisms becomes increasingly critical to prevent unintended consequences.

Nevertheless, the trajectory appears clear: agentic automation represents a fundamental evolution beyond traditional automation approaches. As UiPath’s technical documentation emphasizes, “This isn’t just about doing things faster—it’s about enabling entirely new capabilities and solving problems that were previously intractable.”

For executives across industries, the message is compelling: agentic automation may soon transition from competitive advantage to business necessity, fundamentally altering how organizations approach complex workflows and decision-making processes.