This Week in AI Trading and Business: The Rise of Agentic AI

What is Agentic AI and Why Does It Matter?

Think of regular AI like having a really smart assistant who can write emails or answer questions. Now imagine an AI agent as a worker who can actually go out and do the job without asking for permission every step of the way. That's the difference between old AI and agentic AI, the big technology trend taking over in 2026. These AI agents can read information, make decisions, and take actions all on their own. They can handle jobs with many steps and figure out problems without a human telling them exactly what to do every single moment.

Real Companies Using Agentic AI Right Now

Walmart, the huge grocery and shopping company in the United States, is already showing how powerful agentic AI can be. The company decided to try using AI agents to negotiate deals with its suppliers. These AI agents could talk to suppliers and try to get better prices. Walmart's goal was to have AI agents handle 20% of these negotiations, but they actually did 64% of them. The amazing part? The AI agents saved the company 1.5% on the costs of making these deals, and 83% of suppliers actually said they liked working with the AI better than with human buyers.

Beyond just negotiating, agentic AI can do so many different jobs. It can watch store cameras and sensors to make sure everything is safe and secure. It can look at what customers are buying to figure out which products are trending. It can even choose which advertisements will work best in different store locations and change prices based on what competitors are charging.

The Money Side: Investors Getting Excited

Business experts think agentic AI is going to be huge for making money. Research company Grand View Research says that companies buying agentic AI for their businesses will spend $2.6 billion in 2024, but that number will jump to over $24 billion by 2030. That's almost 10 times more money in just six years.

Two companies that investors are watching closely are UiPath and Alphabet (Google). UiPath is like the conductor of an orchestra – it helps companies build and run their AI agents. The company had been losing money for a long time but just started making profits in 2025. Its stock price went down a lot, which means it might be a good time for investors to buy it. Alphabet, which owns Google, is the company building the powerful computer brains (called models) that make agentic AI work. Google's AI called Gemini is one of the most popular AI tools being used, with more than 650 million people using it every month.

How Different Industries Are Using Agentic AI

In real estate, companies are getting creative. Imagine a shopping mall that uses an AI agent to look at social media, check what local events drew big crowds in the past, and then automatically create a calendar of fun events that will bring more shoppers to the mall. The AI agent figures out what kinds of events people in that area like and suggests the best times to hold them.

In insurance companies, agentic AI is helping with claims. When someone says their car was damaged, an AI agent can help process that claim faster. It can even help spot fraud by looking for patterns that seem suspicious.

The Challenges Ahead

Even though agentic AI sounds amazing, there are some problems companies need to worry about. Sometimes AI can make biased decisions – it might treat some people unfairly based on information in its training data. If an AI agent makes a wrong decision automatically, it could cause big problems before anyone notices. Companies also need to make sure they don't lose control of what their AI agents are doing.

Right now, most companies haven't actually saved money with AI yet. A survey of Canadian companies found that 93% are using some kind of AI, but only 2% had seen money savings from it so far. This is because people are still learning how to use these tools properly.

What's Coming Next

Experts say that 2026 is going to be the year when agentic AI stops being just an experiment and becomes a real tool that companies actually use every day. The companies that start using this technology now will probably do better than competitors who wait too long. But everyone agrees that businesses need to set up good rules and training programs to make sure they use agentic AI safely and fairly.