Written by Athina Mallis
Published in CRN, 28 May, 2025
Agentic AI is the new black, well according to every AI-focused vendor it is. This year we’ve seen agentic AI developments from Google, Microsoft, AWS, ServiceNow; the list goes on.
Agentic AI is a virtual workforce of agents to assist and offload the work of humans, lightening the load and reducing menial tasks from hours to minutes.
It is the name on everybody’s lips, but is this AI-based solution here to stay or just a fleeting moment?
Gartner predicts that by 2029, agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80 percent of common customer service issues without human intervention, leading to a 30 percent reduction in operational costs.
The research firm also called it one of the top technology trends for 2025. While the vendors are showcasing agentic AI offerings, what do the partners think?
Warren Nolan, SVP channel and strategy APAC, Crayon said agentic AI is front of mind for the majority of their partners in regards to trying to understand how they can implement AI into their solutions.
"It's like when cloud computing came about, you needed to have the conversation about it, irrespective of whether or not your customers ready for it,” he explained.
He noted that partners need to be prepared to talk about agentic AI.
“You need to understand how it's going to potentially impact on their business from a productivity point of view, whether or not you're going to create automation through AI,” he said.
“That as a partner make your service to your customer more streamlined and more profitable. Whether or not what you can offer them as a solution for their business can be optimised through AI.”
“A big bet”
Some partners are already implementing agentic AI both internally for themselves and externally for their customers.
Dr Peter Stanski, CTO at AI digital transformation firm, V2 AI said everyone is betting big on agentic AI.
“Everyone's realising the fact that this is where it's going. We're seeing the massive foundational investments by the hyperscalers, the AWS of the world, Microsoft, Google, Anthropic, OpenAI.
“The plumbing is definitely getting better. The silicon has improved to support this.”
Agentic AI also has capabilities to help partners with various tasks.
Stephen White, VP analyst at Gartner said agentic AI has a revenue impact facilitating analytics for better client awareness, targeting, forecasting and inventory management.
“Distributor use includes partner enablement, addressing queries and sourcing product,” he said.
“It has enabled resellers to pivot talent to focus on offering more value to their clients, through complex activities in lieu of executing routine operational and administrative tasks.”
A virtual AI assistant
Charlie Masters, general manager at Asana partner Taco Technologies uses agentic AI within the workflow tool to automate their administrative tasks.
What the team at Taco Technologies has done is work out in each team what work they can outsource to an agent, creating an agentic workflow.
They use agentic AI as an executive assistant to file emails in certain inboxes, assign tasks and even respond to particular emails.
Masters told CRN Australia that having agentic AI integrated in their workflow solution is “really compelling”.
“The fact that it's living inside our collaborative work management platform being Asana, and it's so well integrated, it's secure and it's validated through all of our certifications that we need it to be,” he said.
“That's what makes it cool because we're not using ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude anymore, because we don't need to. We can do things in Asana instead, and that matters to big businesses who are concerned about data security.”
Communication is key
While agentic AI looks exciting, it is imperative that partners and customers alike learn how to use the tool properly.
Stanski explained that agentic AI isn’t a tool to just implement, wipe your hands of and move on. He said partners and customers must work at it.
"It's not a silver bullet and we've certainly seen customers saying, ‘AI will take care of that’. My answer is if you don't know how your business works today, the AI is not going to know any better,” he said.
“We've done workshops with customers where we were writing job descriptions as to what do you want this agentic persona to do for you like you would for a normal human being.”
Stanski stressed the importance of designing AI agents properly.
“If you don't prompt them and design them the right way, you don't tell them what great looks like, they just got to go round and round in circles,” he said.
“When you have these agentic systems, how are you training them? What instructions, what examples of what great customer experience looks like, or great outcomes look like?”
Masters at Taco Technologies explains how as an Asana partner they work with their customers to ensure they are trained up in the agentic solution.
"It's one of those situations where people will often fail to invest an adequate amount of time to make it work exceptionally,” he said.
“That's where we're finding ourselves super valuable and valued because we can be that partner, provide that training and say, ‘I see how you did something in this way, better way would be to do it like that’.
“It's just providing that guidance is valuable because no one's going to sit down and watch this 30 minute YouTube video about how to do it. People are so busy.”
Another metaverse?
There is a lot of hype around this technology, and like many hyped up technologies they tend to disappear into the ether. According to several partners, the hype may be well and truly alive, but the implementation of the technology won’t subside.
Nolan at Crayon said Agentic AI does have a lot hype and likens it to FOMO (fear of missing out) where if you’re not talking about it or thinking about implementing it, you’re already out of the loop.
“If you're not talking about it, someone asks you, what do you think and you haven't got a position, you feel like you've not done the right thing,” he said.
“Everybody wants to know, everybody wants to ensure that they've got some sort of AI operating within their business.”
White at Gartner agreed, noting there is definitely market excitement and hype.
“The IT channel principally views Agentic AI through the lens of sales and revenue opportunities,” he said.
“Operationally, autonomous agents’ ability to deliver tangible benefits through efficiency and cost reduction outcomes are expected to make it an asset for channel players where leveraged and deployed appropriately.”
Stanski at V2 said while there are parallels between the hype of the metaverse and the hype of agentic AI, there is still a vast difference comparing the two technologies.
“The difference is, the metaverse didn't quite have the shape and form to give you immediate business value. Whereas I would argue, AI has, over the years, started to prove more and more business value,” he said.
“It has a lot of shininess, but also, at the same time, there is definitely substance beneath the hype.”
Masters does not at all think agentic AI will go down the metaverse route and believes agentic AI is “so much more”.
“Not to overstate it too much, but it's serious,” he stated.
Masters worked in software engineering for the past 11 years and he realises how much agentic has and will continue to change the game.
"So many of the things that we built, they were little services. If we could just outsource that to a very small AI agent which runs on a model that is tested and it's reliable, it's nothing compared to writing and maintaining code on and on. It's a big difference,” he added.
What the future holds for agentic AI
As the technology continues to grow and be adopted by partners, White at Gartner said it is crucial for channel partners to stay informed about advancements and best practices.
“Recruiting talent and investing in ongoing education will be key to successfully navigating the opportunities and challenges presented,” he explained.
Like it or not, it’s happening, Masters at Taco Technologies said.
“You've got to find somewhere to start, otherwise somewhere someone else that's in your network that does a similar thing to you is going to is going to crack it, and then they're going to be 50 percent more efficient than you,” he said.
“You've got to get on board because it's happening and don't leave it too late. It's a wonderful opportunity for so many businesses, but eventually, not doing it is going to be a huge risk for businesses as well.”
Stanski at V2 said 2025 is the year of agentic AI.
"This is a technology that actually is becoming ripe. It has still lots of rough edges, but those rough edges will certainly be diminished,” he ended.
