# Q&A: What is agentic AI today, and what do we want it to be?

DevFeed: [Q&A: What is agentic AI today, and what do we want it to be?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/q-a-what-is-agentic-ai-today-and-what-do-we-want-it-to-be-37939.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://news.mit.edu/2026/agentic-ai-and-what-do-we-want-it-be-0630>)

Author: Adam Zewe | MIT News

Published: 2026-06-30T15:30:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [MIT AI News](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/mit-ai-news.md>)

Topics: [what is agentic AI](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/what-is-agentic-ai.md>), [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>), [AI Models](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-models.md>)

Tags: [agentic-ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agentic-ai.md>), [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [ai-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-agents.md>), [ai-models](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-models.md>), [algorithms](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/algorithms.md>), [artificial-intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/artificial-intelligence.md>), [chatgpt](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/chatgpt.md>), [claude](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/claude.md>), [computer-science-and-artificial-intelligence-laboratory-csail](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/computer-science-and-artificial-intelligence-laboratory-csail.md>), [computer-science-and-technology](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/computer-science-and-technology.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [electrical-engineering-and-computer-science-eecs](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science-eecs.md>), [generative-ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/generative-ai.md>), [human-computer-interaction](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/human-computer-interaction.md>), [interview](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/interview.md>), [large-language-models-llms](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/large-language-models-llms.md>), [machine-learning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/machine-learning.md>), [mit-schwarzman-college-of-computing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mit-schwarzman-college-of-computing.md>), [phillip-isola](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/phillip-isola.md>), [school-of-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/school-of-engineering.md>)

## AI overview

This Q&A explains agentic AI as systems that take actions in the physical or digital world, distinguishing them from generative AI systems that primarily produce content. It describes how agents combine foundation models such as Claude with application-specific tools and memory, and identifies limited training data for real-world tasks as a major development challenge.

## Source excerpt

Computer scientist Phillip Isola cuts through the hype to explain how AI agents work and what the future might hold for this rapidly advancing technology.