Gartner has predicted that by 2028 one third of interactions with generative AI will use action models and autonomous agents to complete tasks.
Autonomous agents are a group of systems that can handle defined tasks without the need for regular human input, instead leveraging AI technologies to make decisions and act. Moreover, they can learn from their environment and make improvements, allowing them to perform more complex tasks.
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The technology research and consultancy firm Gartner believes that the advanced AI will have clear use cases across various sectors including healthcare, education, insurance, and gaming.
Arun Chandrasekaran, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, foresees some of the positive results that may come from an increase in autonomous agents:
“In the future, human interactions with GenAI may evolve from users prompting large language models (LLMs) to users interfacing directly with autonomous intent-driven agents, which could allow for a higher degree of autonomy and much better alignment with human goals.”
Multi-Industry Application
Autonomous agents can be leveraged for several tasks like chaining models, verifying model outputs and entering it into another model, running in a loop to process inputs.
Such tasks can be turned into meaningful capabilities that can automate complex business processes by accessing the internet and utilising applications.
Chandrasekaran envisages autonomous agents performing a useful role across multiple sectors:
“Autonomous agents can reduce the need for human intervention when interacting with LLMs and reduce the burden on business users across many sectors, as they are able to spend less time on advanced prompt engineering.”
Within the healthcare sector, medical professionals can use autonomous agents to assist with treatment planning, patient care, and disease diagnostics.
Autonomous agents are able to help within the education sector by enabling personalised learning experiences and to be shaped to fit different teaching methodologies.
The insurance industry can benefit from autonomous customer service application that are able to process policyholder interactions via voice and text, assist with claims medical service, fraud, policy, and repair systems.
Autonomous agents also have a role to play in gaming too as they can observe and communicate with human players, and create more realistic experiences.
Create ‘Clear Objective Functions’
Chandrasekaran advises that we give autonomous agents a clearly defined role: “Autonomous agents need a clear objective function so that their behaviours can be controlled in a meaningful way to deliver value.
“The tasks autonomous agents can perform, such as verifying the output of a model before inputting into another model, has the ability to control model output and automate complex business processes based on human intent. But this can only be achieved with a clear objective function.”
Gartner therefore suggests that organisations identify use cases, build an architecture to suit the agents, acknowledge that quality prompts will still be required, and strike a balance between autonomy and control with extended pilots and agent monitoring.
