Apps, Agents & Agentic AI, Oh My.
- John Bell
- 5 minutes ago
- 4 min read
What are AI Applications? What are AI Agents? What is Agentic AI?
Anyone’s first response to these questions might be, “Who cares?” With all the hype around AI that would be understandable. After all, “57.9% of global venture capital funds were captured by AI in Q1 2025.” The waters are frothy.
Beyond the general AI giants like OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic, and the generative AI darlings like Midjourney and Stability, there’s a world of innovation and investment happening in more specific areas: applications and agents.
As a marketing strategist, I need to get beyond the single-purpose AI utilities that create social post copy, generate YouTube clips, or perform other thankless tasks. I want an AI Agent to run significant parts of my marketing programs and deliver actual results.
That CMO AI Super-Agent is coming. But first, what are AI Applications?
AI Applications
Lightspeed Ventures distinguishes between Foundational Models (e.g., Anthropic), Platform & Enablement (e.g., Contextual.ai), and the Application Layer.
“The overwhelming majority of AI startups operate at this layer, focusing on the ‘last mile’ between the foundation models and the end user. These applications can be further subdivided into consumer, business, and industry-specific categories.” (Lightspeed)
In fairness, the difference between AI Application, AI Agent, and Agentic AI seems a bit academic. All I want is that super-smart, self-directed helper to augment the lean, mean marketing team of the future in ways that we can only imagine. I want more than instant YouTube shorts.
Google Gemini defines AI Applications as,
“These are software programs or tools that utilize specific AI models or techniques to perform a defined task or set of tasks. They are typically designed with a user interface for direct human interaction and control. The AI within the application operates within pre-defined boundaries and workflows. Their key characteristics are task-specific, human-initiated and directed, operate within a structured environment and often have a graphical user interface.”
Lightspeed’s AI Application Snapshot features marketing examples like Typeface, Jasper, and even ChatGPT, so the definition of an app is pretty broad. Keep an eye on Typeface.ai. Their vision of Arc Agents is inspiring, even if the application doesn’t yet have that functionality.
Agentic AI
This is more of a concept than a thing. We all want Agentic AI, and we will experience it via AI Agents.
Gemini defines Agentic AI as,
“This refers to a broader paradigm where AI systems exhibit more autonomy, goal-directed behavior, and the ability to perceive their environment, make decisions, and take actions to achieve specific objectives without constant human intervention. While not fully independent, Agentic AI demonstrates a higher degree of proactivity and problem-solving. Characteristics include:
Goal-oriented.
Autonomous decision-making within defined goals.
Ability to perceive and interact with their environment (often digital).
Can initiate actions and adapt strategies to achieve objectives.
May still require initial setup and high-level goal definition by humans.”
Agentic AI acts more independently and can take actions to achieve goals. Right now, when you are typing a prompt into ChatGPT or Gemini, the AI is highly directed and only gives you what you ask for. Imagine tasking Agentic AI (via an AI Agent) to achieve an optimized marketing result over time by whatever means necessary. Just think about the black boxes of Google and Meta's advertising platforms.
Gemini gives this example:
“AI-powered Campaign Optimization Engines: A system that, once provided with a high-level goal (e.g., increase conversion rate by 15% within a budget), can autonomously adjust bids across different ad platforms, modify targeting parameters, and even suggest or implement changes to ad creative based on real-time performance data. While a human sets the overarching goal, the AI manages the tactical execution and optimization.”
All I can say is, “Yes, please.”
AI Agents
Typeface is building fit-for-purpose marketing agents. Ability.ai has a pretty good initial campaign agent. Outside the marketing category, ServiceNow bought MoveWorks, which boasts a growing library of AI Agents to automate tasks and boost productivity, and a method for building new ones.
Gemini defines AI Agents as,
“These are specific software entities or programs embodying the principles of Agentic AI. They are designed to be autonomous, proactive, and capable of reasoning, planning, and acting in an environment to achieve specific goals. They often have a defined "personality" or role and can interact with other agents or humans. Key Characteristics:
Highly autonomous and goal-driven.
Can perceive, reason, plan, and act.
May have memory and learn from past experiences.
Can interact with complex environments.
Can collaborate with other agents or humans."
It is early days, but the rate of development is high. Just look at ChatGPT's recent releases and the surprising things it can do. But the potential behind Agentic AI as manifested in marketing-specific AI Agents, is terrific. Here’s how Gemini outlines the future capability of Highly Personalized Customer Engagement Agents (i.e., how CRM will change with AI Agents) :
Perceive: Individual customer behavior across website, email, and app interactions.
Reason: Understand customer intent and predict future needs.
Plan: Orchestrate personalized multi-channel journeys with tailored content and offers.
Act: Automatically trigger emails, in-app messages, and website personalization.
Learn: Refine personalization strategies based on customer responses and conversion data.
Collaboration: These agents interact with CRM systems and other customer data platforms.”
I want a marketing AI Agent that is highly autonomous and goal-driven, can perceive, reason, plan, and act, will remember and learn from past experiences, can interact with complex environments, and can collaborate with other agents or humans.
When will I get my CMO AI Super-Agent? Whatever my guess, it will probably happen sooner.
