True agentic AI is years away - here's why and how we get there

Today's AI agents are a primitive approximation of what agents are meant to be. True agentic AI requires serious advances in reinforcement learning and complex memory.

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• Today's AI agents don't meet the definition of true agents.
• Key missing elements are reinforcement learning and complex memory.
• It will take at least five years to get AI agents where they need to be.

The giants of enterprise technology -- Microsoft, ServiceNow, Salesforce, and others -- have spent the past year and a half unveiling various kinds of artificial intelligence agents, programs that can automate many tasks within their respective software suites. 

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The vendors hope that these agents will manifest what they consider the true promise of generative ...