WTF is agentic AI?!

It’s the buzzword you can’t afford to ignore.

Because it’s about to be the one everyone pretends to understand in meetings. So let’s make sure you actually do.

Remember the good old days? When AI was just about getting ChatGPT to write your email copy 30% faster so you could handle the 5 million other things on your plate? Cute.

Welcome to the next level: that is, Agentic AI. The AI that doesn’t wait for your prompt. It sets its own goals, makes decisions, and executes tasks with (sometimes terrifying) independence.

Agentic AI is like if your intern stopped asking for instructions and started building entire marketing funnels while you were still on your morning oat latte.

And for marketers, this clearly changes everything. Because the old playbook of “ask AI, get output” is being replaced by “give AI a goal, watch it strategise, execute, and learn.” This is far more than another automation tool. It’s a shift in how marketing might be planned, delivered, and optimised in real time.

And look, I don’t care if you’re rolling your eyes at yet another tech term. Here’s what Agentic AI actually is and why you might just welcome it as your new smartest co-worker.

So let’s start with the basics: what is Agentic AI?

Most AI tools right now are like those friends who are super helpful, but only when you ask the exact right question, and you ask it nicely. You prompt. They respond. The end. Badabing, badaboom.

Agentic AI, on the other hand, is like your friend who sees a problem, makes a to-do list, books the meetings, and fixes it before you even knew it was a thing. It’s not reactive, but proactive. It doesn’t wait around for instructions. It takes the damn wheel.

In slightly more technical terms:

Agentic AI refers to AI systems that have a sense of “agency.” 

That means they can:

• Set their own sub-goals

• Decide what to do next

• Take multiple steps toward achieving a broader objective

You give it an outcome (e.g., “grow newsletter subscribers by 20%”), and it figures out the strategy, drafts copy, A/B tests variations, sets up campaigns, tracks performance, and optimises accordingly. All without needing a human to babysit every step.

Basically, if current AI is a calculator, agentic AI is your marketing manager.

A few steps ahead of what we’re used to, huh?

Reading this, I’m sure you can see why as a marketer, this is an important tool. Because it’s not simply a new tool—it’s a new paradigm. It changes how work gets done. And in a world where speed and scale win, marketers who learn to work with agentic systems will have a serious edge.

Here's why:

• No more micro-managing prompts. You’ll shift from “generate this caption” to “launch a campaign to increase Instagram engagement with Gen Z women.”

• It’s not automation, it’s autonomy. Automation helps you do tasks faster. Agentic AI helps you decide which tasks matter most and how to do them smarter. Big difference.

• It makes full-funnel strategy possible. At scale. Imagine an AI that can:

  • Write your ad copy

  • Test landing page variants

  • Optimise email flows

  • Reroute spend in real time based on performance

That’s not a wish list, that’s next quarter.

Agentic AI in the wild

It’s not sci-fi, baby. You can already see early signs of agentic behaviour in tools like:

• Cognition’s Devin: an AI software engineer that can take a vague instruction (“build me a web app that tracks fitness goals”) and fully execute the project autonomously.

• AutoGPT / BabyAGI: open-source tools that string together tasks and goals to work toward an objective across multiple steps.

• Custom GPT agents + Zapier/Make: hybrid setups where GPT-4 can trigger tools, send emails, run reports, and act instead of just reply.

• Personalised marketing AIs: like those building end-to-end funnels from product feed to paid ads to retargeting sequences, all optimised continuously.

You heard it here first: we’re not just prompting anymore, we’re delegating entire strats to AI agents. Besides, “the AI will take our jobs” panic is… mostly boring at this point.

What’s way more interesting (and useful) is how our jobs are about to evolve.

• Outcome-setting > Prompt-writing. The most powerful marketers in the agentic age won’t be the best copywriters or prompt engineers. They’ll be the ones who can set clear goals, define parameters, and audit AI output critically.

• Your role shifts from creator to conductor. You’re not just making content. You’re orchestrating systems that create, learn, and optimise. You’re less “writer,” more “creative director of 100 micro-agents.”

• Start small, but start now. You don’t need a six-figure tool budget. Start with a basic GPT-powered automation that:

  • Gathers performance data

  • Suggests optimisations

  • Writes & schedules new posts based on past winners

Agentic AI is not “the next AI feature.” It’s a whole new way of thinking.

The marketers who thrive won’t be the ones who learn to prompt faster. They’ll be the ones who design systems, set smarter goals, and build AI into their workflows like a strategic partner.

So this goes out to any of y’all that have ever said “I wish I had ten of me”… congrats. Now you do. You just have to manage them wisely.

And maybe learn to give them snacks. (Kidding. Sort of.)

-Sophie Randell, Writer