7.1.1. AI, AI Maturity, GenAI, and Agentic AI
💡 First Principle: These four terms give you the vocabulary to talk about AI at an awareness level — what AI is, how advanced an organization's use of it is, and two increasingly capable forms of it.
The terms to recognize: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the capability of a machine or system to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving. AI maturity describes how advanced and well-integrated an organization's adoption and use of AI is. GenAI (Generative AI) is AI that creates new content — text, images, code — based on patterns learned from data. Agentic AI is AI that can act with a degree of autonomy, taking actions and making decisions to pursue goals with limited human direction.
⚠️ Exam Trap: Distinguish GenAI (creates content) from agentic AI (takes autonomous action toward goals). They're different capabilities, and the exam may contrast them. AI maturity is about adoption sophistication, not the AI's intelligence.
Reflection Question: What's the key difference between generative AI and agentic AI in terms of what each one does?
