The agentic AI advantage: Unlocking the next level of AI value

Learn how to navigate this revolutionary phase of the AI journey through a framework for optimizing agent use, guidelines for overcoming key barriers, and practical actions to take now.

The era of agentic AI has already begun

Just as executives are beginning to scale the game-changing capabilities of GenAI across their organizations, a new and even more powerful AI-technology has emerged: agentic AI. While GenAI augments humans by providing information and guidance to help them make better decisions and act faster, agentic AI can fully automate what humans do by taking actions on their behalf, in pursuit of prescribed business outcomes.

While still early days, agentic AI is already showing such great promise and evolving so rapidly, that no corporate executive, or board, can ignore its potential to transform their organizations and gain competitive advantage. Companies that prepare the ground now for their AI journeys will be in a better position to thrive in what we believe will be a very different future.

AI agents can unlock significant value

AI agents can unlock greater enterprise value in at least four significant ways:

01
Expand work that can be automated

AI agents expand the range of processes that can be automated, freeing up knowledge workers for strategic tasks. These agents continuously improve through advanced algorithms and machine learning, enabling seamless collaboration between digital and human workers.

02
24/7/365 availability

Agents operate independently and are available outside normal working hours, allowing organizations to monitor regulatory changes in real time, infer and extract mandatory obligations, and update compliance documentation across jurisdictions.

03
Organizational resilience through continuous optimization

Specialized agents working together transform business processes through seamless handoffs, real-time adjustments, resource optimization, and autonomous decision-making within set guardrails.

04
Conversion of knowledge into action

Deploying multiple agents requires feeding them structured knowledge to achieve effective outcomes. This involves capturing and organizing the expertise that typically resides in employees' minds, making it accessible for agents to use.

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The agentic AI advantage

Learn how agentic AI can unlock enterprise value and explore practical steps to accelerate your journey.

The spectrum of AI agents

Identifying where and when to use specific AI agents can be complex. The KPMG TACO Framework™ is a structured classification system to help organizations navigate the evolving landscape and increasing complexity of AI agents. Download this paper to learn how to align business requirements with the right level of agent sophistication, overcome barriers to adoption, and start the journey to enterprise-wide agent-led transformation.

1

Taskers execute well-defined individual tasks and require a “human in the loop.”

2

Automators manage more complex tasks that span multi-system workflows.

3

Collaborators are adaptive AI teammates that manage multi-dimensional goals.

4

Orchestrators are transformative agentic systems that coordinate multiple agents and tools to manage interdependent workflows.

Practical next steps to accelerate your agentic AI journey

Leaders should consider the following actions to advance their agentic AI programs

Articulate the vision

Start with a clear, actionable vision for how AI agents will transform your business and address key pain points. Identify where agents can add the most value—from routine tasks to complex workflows and customer interactions.

Start agentic pilots

Initiate AI pilots where they will provide the most value:

  • Focus on "hot spots": Target areas with successful AI or GenAI pilots and high user engagement.
  • Go deep into a function: Start in a low-risk, repetitive area like finance and use it as a scalable model.
  • Broad utilization: Implement AI agents in a critical, cross-functional value stream central to operations.

Prepare to scale agents within key functions and workflows

Quickly pilot AI agent platforms to achieve early wins and build executive momentum. Utilize the KPMG TACO FrameworkTM to identify the best agents and target key departments. Develop a comprehensive strategy for scaling AI across the enterprise.

Evolve your Trusted AI governance and playbook for agents

Expand current AI governance to include agentic AI, keeping ahead of legal and regulatory requirements. Create a living catalog of all AI agents to track purposes and performance metrics and establish robust processes for continuous improvement.

Implement Trusted AI evaluations specific to AI agents

Align AI governance with regulations using AI system cards to document use, data, components, and limitations. Conduct thorough testing, including "purple team" evaluations, before production. These processes inform a trust score reflecting AI principles adherence.

Establish agentic talent performance metrics

Establish metrics to evaluate pilot projects and gather stakeholder feedback. Measure and optimize AI agent performance with error rates, processing times, and customer satisfaction. Use data to improve algorithms and training. Implement telemetry to monitor SLA compliance and system health.

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The agentic AI advantage

Learn how agentic AI can unlock enterprise value and explore practical steps to accelerate your journey.

How KPMG can help

Explore our services

We help turn agentic AI into your competitive edge, working side-by-side from strategy to execution, with a people-centric approach grounded in trust. By optimizing the collaboration between what humans and agents can do today, we can unlock the full potential of what will be possible tomorrow and help create lasting value together.

We offer a portfolio of services tailored to enable end-to-end transformation of your business with agentic AI across both functional and foundational layers and the entire enterprise:

  • KPMG AI Strategy: Helps shape your agentic AI strategy and business case with an actionable roadmap. 
  • KPMG AI Jumpstart:  Accelerates your path to value from proof-of-concept to launch to adoption at scale.
  • KPMG AI Trust: Safely introduce AI agents and scale across the enterprise.
  • KPMG AI Workforce: Unlocks the full potential of agentic AI for, and with, your people during the journey. 
  • KPMG AI Technology: Build sustainable AI and agentic AI solutions, along with the underlying data infrastructure.
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KPMG Workbench

Learn how KPMG Workbench can help supercharge your business and unlock value through this multi-agent AI platform—combining advanced, trusted AI agents with the insight and deep industry expertise of KPMG professionals.

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