By Gisselle Ruíz Lanza*
Our ability to make decisions, thinking not only about the immediate result but also in the medium and long term implications, is one of the most distinctive characteristics of human intelligence. We constantly evaluate multiple variables and decide from the experience to determine the best possible action: from our most daily decisions, even in the planning of complex strategies for our businesses. This way of deciding how things are done looking for the best possible result is now a capacity that artificial intelligence is beginning to emulate sophisticated. In fact, AI agents represent the evolution of this technology and have the potential to transform thousands of whole businesses and industries in Latin America and the world carrying out activities that was previously unthinkable for a computer.
As an executive in a company, AI agents can investigate, analyze, make decisions and complete a complex task. According to Boston Consulting Group, the potential of AI agents will have an annual growth of 45% in the next 5 years.
Unlike generative AI (GEN AI), which creates unique results from a promptAI agents go one step further. Gen AI is the creative brain, an AI agent is the autonomous assistant who thinks, decides and acts.
Imagine you have a special dinner and decide to ask AI help. If you use generative, it’s like having a brilliant chef in your kitchen. You give him a clear instruction – for example: “Make me a vegetarian lasagna with Italian ingredients” – and he prepares it at the moment, with creativity and precision. That is what the generative AI does: it creates new content (text, images, code, video, music) from your indications. Now imagine that, instead of just cooking, you want someone to take care of all the experience: go to the supermarket, choose the coole aim. It operates with greater autonomy and can perform complex actions in different environments, without the need to be giving step by step.
While other AI applications are limited to the data with which they were trained (which limits their ability to handle recent or confidential information), AI agents can interact with internal databases, APIS (the mechanism by which the software communicates with each other and others), business systems and the web. This makes them a tool that takes into account a much broader and real time context. This personalization ability where the value of this innovation resides.
AI agents are possible thanks to the recent technological advances we have seen. I refer to semiconductors, more powerful and efficient ia accelerators at the energy level such as those we design, as well as GPUS, memories, among other elements.
Each business has the ability to design and program their own agents for specific use cases with previously established parameters, an AI agent can have the ability to perform as simple tasks as making a reservation in a hotel and save you an hour of time to call by phone or see the best price on a website to more complex tasks such as performing risk prevention tasks in the financial sector to avoid money losses in a bank.
The transformative impact of this technology is already evidenced in various sectors. The report of “AI Agents Report 2025” of District, a hub of entrepreneurship and business transformation, illustrates the impact of this technology with success cases in areas of finance, retailers, HR and marketing. The results are incredible, with execution time reductions of up to 98%, cost reduction by 65%, a 20%increase in sales, among many others.
However, to capitalize on these benefits, the implementation of AI agents requires careful planning, as mentioned in the results of the McKinsey report, and have a defined roadmap on the technologies of AI in the business. In order for these tools to operate fluently and efficiently in companies, it is important to consider key aspects such as the current technological infrastructure, democratize the knowledge of AI within organizations, ensure that the equipment includes their potential and limits, and have a robust governance structure that guarantees responsible, ethical and aligned use with the business objectives.
An effective approach is to start very specific, high impact cases and with a return on clearly measurable investment, which serve as a starting point to climb the adoption sustainably.
Finally, data security, privacy and ethics must be fundamental pillars in the development and implementation of this type of AI. Given its ability to access and process highly confidential and delicate information, it is vital to establish robust security parameters and meticulously defined privacy and ethics policies from the design. This should consider not only legislative compliance according to the region, but to build a comprehensive program that fosters confidence not only among customers, but also within the entire organization.
The successful integration of AI agents depends on a fundamental premise: to place the human being in the center of their development and guide its implementation with a clear strategy. To achieve this, our role as leaders is crucial, we must not only keep us at the forefront, but also to promote training in our teams and ensure that business modernization responds to the demands of this new reality. AI agents are not a passing fad; They are the pillar of the next business evolution, and their domain is a critical strategic need.
About the author:
*Gisselle Ruíz Lanza is vice president of the Sales and Marketing Group and General Director of Intel Latin America.
The opinions expressed are only the responsibility of their authors and are completely independent of the position and the editorial line of Forbes Mexico.
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