Artificial Intelligence agents are changing how companies work across the world. This week, several big announcements showed how agentic AI – robots that can think and make decisions with less help from people – is becoming real in offices, hospitals, and factories.

On November 5 in Canada, Thomson Reuters announced new AI tools that can help lawyers, accountants, and tax experts do their jobs faster. These tools can read documents, create reports, and solve problems without people telling them every step to take. The company says thousands of professionals will start using these tools early next year.

Big technology companies are also building the computer power needed for AI agents to work. IBM and NVIDIA announced a new system that helps hospitals use AI to do research. Cisco launched a platform to run AI agents at the edges of networks – meaning closer to where people actually use them – instead of far away in big data centers.

Scientists around the world are also making AI agents smarter. Researchers have created new ways to teach AI agents how to think and solve hard problems. These AI agents are learning from both success and failure, getting better at web browsing tasks and writing computer code.

The biggest idea this week is that AI agents need to understand context and processes, not just generate fast answers. Companies are learning that real AI agents need to explain their choices and work alongside people, creating what experts call "accountable autonomy." This means AI agents can work independently but people can still understand why they made their decisions.