You’ve probably heard the term thrown around at industry conferences and in vendor pitches: Agentic AI. But if you’re like most security integrators and consultants, you might be wondering what it actually means, and more importantly, whether it’s something you need to pay attention to or just another in a sea of tech buzzwords that will eventually fade away.

The short answer? This one looks like it matters. Agentic AI represents a fundamental shift in how artificial intelligence can work for a security business, moving beyond simple chatbots and analytics to create digital workers that can actually take action and make decisions within defined boundaries – to solve many of the mundane and repetitive tasks that tend to cut into an employee’s average day-to-day duties.

To cut through the hype and get to what security executives really need to understand, I spoke with Don Morron, founder of HighlandTech, an AI automation agency that builds custom AI agents for small and medium-sized businesses. With 13 years in the security industry, Morron brings both technical expertise and practical insight into how integrators can actually use this technology.

I also gathered perspectives from Steve Lindsey of LiveView Technologies, who recently spoke about agentic AI’s transformative potential at the Securing New Ground Conference, hosted in New York by the Security Industry Association (SIA) in October.

Morron breaks it down simply: “Agentic actually is a word to describe agents,” he explains. “To define agents, think of them as digital workers that will automate some, most, or all of a task – usually some business process.”

Morron puts it in simple terms: Traditional software follows rigid instructions – ie. if this happens, do that. This method is predictable and reliable, but inflexible. AI agents, on the other hand, have what Morron calls “agency” – a degree of autonomous decision-making that allows them to figure out how to accomplish a task, not just execute pre-programmed steps.

“Agency is free will, like we have as people,” Morron explains. “As a person, you have free will to decide what you need to do, based on some knowledge or tools, to execute on some task. The concept is the same for AI agents.”

Under the hood, AI agents combine three elements: knowledge (documents, procedures, product data), tools (business systems like email, CRMs, or service management software), and that crucial element, agency – which is powered by generative AI, the same technology behind ChatGPT.