Most of the AI agent systems being sold today are not truly agentic, according to a report from business research and insights firm Gartner. According to the report, out of thousands of AI agent systems touted by vendors, only 130 are real. Gartner predicted that more than 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by 2027 due to high costs, unclear business value and weak risk controls brought on by AI systems incorrectly marketed as agentic. “True AI agents are defined by goal-driven autonomy — the ability to work dynamically and proactively, with self-determination, to pursue long-term business goals,” Sagi Eliyahu, co-founder and CEO of the tech orchestration platform Tonkean, told. “A true agentic AI system orchestrates agents across every relevant piece of technology or team environment. If the ‘agent’ only handles discrete tasks that are defined by the user, if it only works inside its own system, or if it’s only accessible through chat, it may in fact be an AI capability, but it’s not an agent — it’s an automation or it’s a chatbot.” Akhil Sahai, chief product officer at Kanverse.ai, wrote in a post on LinkedIn that companies need to ask the following questions to identify whether an AI system is truly agentic: Can the system operate without constant human input? Does it pursue goals autonomously rather than follow scripted tasks? Can it reason, plan and improve with experience? “If the answer to any of these is ‘no,’ it’s not an AI agent,” Sahai said.