technology

IBM Welcomes New Era Of Agentic AI In Business

With Indonesia's digital economy projected to reach USD360 billion (IDR5,811.8 trillion) by 2030, the need for a strong digital infrastructure is becoming increasingly important to support new technologies such as AI and cloud. 

"We are at a crucial moment, where AI Assistants and Agents are evolving from mere tools and technologies to true partners that enhance human creativity and reshape business operations as we know them," said IBM ASEAN General Manager Catherine Lian. 

In relation to this, IBM held a discussion on the transformative potential of Agentic AI in shaping future industries, focusing on how this new generation of AI is able to make decisions independently and act based on goals. IBM believes that this capability will be able to change the way businesses work through increased productivity, improved operational efficiency, and significant cost reductions. Agentic AI is considered to be present as a strong driver, helping business actors build smarter, more efficient, and adaptive AI models for sustainable growth. 

Agentic AI refers to a system or program that is able to perform tasks independently on behalf of users or other systems, by designing its own workflow and utilizing available devices. Its functionality extends beyond natural language processing, including decision-making, problem-solving, interaction with the external environment, and automated execution of actions. IBM said organizations will invest in Agentic AI because of its ability to perform tasks autonomously, adapting to changing conditions without human intervention. IBM also said that this AI agent is able to understand complex instructions, reason, and learn from experience by utilizing GenAI. 

In addition, IBM also outlined the main adoption areas of this artificial intelligence technology, including finance, human resources, procurement, and sales and customer service. In the financial area, Agentic AI is said to help in the automation of financial planning, transaction execution, data validation, and exception reconciliation. While in the human resources area, Agentic AI will help users predict workforce skill needs, as well as provide personalized employee experiences such as HR self-service. In the procurement area, Agentic AI is considered to support dynamic and real-time procurement or sourcing based on market conditions, accompanied by risk mitigation analysis, while in the sales and customer service area, this technology can help with sales forecasting, prospect prioritization, personalized marketing, and 24/7 customer support. Meanwhile, the IBM Institute for Business Value's 2025 CEO study shows that CEOs globally predict AI investment will double in the next two years. As many as 61% of them are actively adopting AI agents. 

In Southeast Asia, 57% of CEOs have adopted AI agents and are ready to expand their scale, with 60% having prepared employees for cultural and operational changes. In Indonesia, 63% of CEOs believe competitive advantage depends on the most advanced generative AI, and 61% are adopting AI agents. IBM introduces a new agent feature in IBM Watsonx Orchestrate, explained using foundation models in agentic architecture to deliver advanced reasoning capabilities and autonomous decision-making. This solution, IBM explains, empowers businesses to reimagine processes, optimize efficiency and productivity, and unlock new revenue opportunities without the cost or complexity of replacing entire systems. 

Tag: Digital Economy Projected IBM