In the last decade, technology has developed much faster, advancing the quality of life. Artificial intelligence, or “AI”, has been shaping up to be an integral part of the future of a more convenient lifestyle for mankind.
With the rapid development of technology, artificial intelligence has continued to push boundaries, to a point where AI may also mean “autonomic innovation”, given its wide potential of utilization.
In an exclusive interview, Mr. Anup Kumar, Chief Technology Officer for Data and AI, IBM-APAC, discussed what agentic AI is and how IBM helps their clients effectively and efficiently incorporate this next generation of business intelligence into their business models.
Agentic AI
For IBM, they define agentic AI as how tasks or goals are accomplished with limited supervision. It’s about how autonomy and dynamic workflow work as a single entity.
“Agentic AI is (a) higher degree of autonomy. It is not about, you know, just giving you information, but acting on it.”
Kumar then compared it to how sometimes people order goods online and how it becomes easier by just inputting the necessary information about the item we are looking for, as AI takes care of the other processes involved in the entire process.
“Agentic AI, it is a kind of autonomy. The higher (the) degree of autonomy, I will say, the more agentic it is,” he added.
IBM and Agentic AI
As one of the leading bodies in the field of agentic AI, IBM serves as a guide for their clients and partners in educating and assisting them with guidance, education, and execution of plans involving agentic AI.
“You know, we don’t talk about AI, but we guide them on how it is implemented. So our typical engagement model is we do what we call a “co-creation” with the customer. So if you have a problem statement and you don’t know where to start, we help you to get it started. We build something for you. We make sure that you know you are able to evaluate it. And if you like it, you know, we’ll help you scale.”
“Last year, you know, we did close to 500 (such) engagements, and this year we are not slowing down. We are going at a much faster pace, almost like you know what we did last year in one year. This year, we did that in the first half itself,” Kumar shared.
IBM IN PH
So far, IBM has worked with various government offices around the country, such as the Department of Education-National Capital Region, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Labor and Employment, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, as well as colleges in Makati, Pampanga, and Cebu.
Just recently, IBM partnered with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to train the youth from the National Training School for Girls in Muntinlupa through the IBM SkillsBuild program.
IBM SkillsBuild (www.skillsbuild.org) is a learning program that includes an online platform with over 1,000 courses in 20 languages on AI fundamentals, generative AI, AI ethics, prompt writing, machine learning, cybersecurity, data analysis, cloud computing, programming and coding, and many other technical disciplines and workplace skills.
With this program, IBM affirms its commitment to upskilling 30 million people globally by 2030, which includes 2 million people trained on Artificial Intelligence (AI) by 2026.
Future with Agentic AI
With artificial intelligence shaping up to be a key in leading the race for future advancement, Kumar assured that IBM is very much capable in guiding and educating individuals, institutions, and businesses when it comes to agentic AI.
“IBM has the solution, the platform, the client engineering and consulting team to provide a combination of domain, technology, and the platform to the customers.”
