Dictionary entry
agenticness
also degree of agenticness or agentic level
Definition of agenticness
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: the degree to which an AI system behaves like an agent by pursuing goals, acting through tools or an environment, adapting its plan, maintaining activity over time, and operating with limited direct supervision
- The email assistant had low agenticness because it could draft a reply but could not send it or decide what to do next.
- Researchers compared the agenticness of the systems across autonomy, environmental interaction, adaptation, goal pursuit, and temporal coherence.
Origin & history
Researchers used agenticness in 2024 to describe the degree to which an AI system can adaptively pursue complex goals in complex environments with limited supervision. Later work treated it as a multidimensional spectrum rather than a yes-or-no label, helping distinguish simple chatbots and tool calls from systems with sustained, adaptive agency.
Editorial references
Sources & further reading
- Practices for Governing Agentic Systems↗ Research Presentation · OpenAI Forum · 2024
- The Term ‘Agent’ Has Been Diluted Beyond Utility and Requires Redefinition↗ Research Paper · AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society · 2025
- Defining AI Agents: A Compendium of Criteria, Metrics, and Benchmarks↗ Research Survey · arXiv · 2026-09-10
Test yourself
Which of these is the meaning of agenticness?
Cite this entry
"Agenticness." AI Dictionary, Dadgogo, https://dadgogo.com/dictionary/agenticness/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.