Empathy meets automation: The promise of Agentic AI

What if your next financial advisor, health insurance guide, or even your travel agent weren’t a person, but an intelligent assistant that understands your needs, plans your journey, and makes decisions for you instantly and effortlessly? This is not the future we’re waiting for. It is the future that has already begun — with the rise of Agentic AI.

What is Agentic AI?
Agentic AI is a powerful form of artificial intelligence that doesn’t just respond to questions, but actively thinks, plans, and acts on your behalf. Unlike traditional chatbots that offer scripted responses, Agentic AI can complete multi-step tasks, understand context, recall your past interactions, and tailor its assistance to your individual goals and emotional tone. Whether it’s helping someone compare financial products, assisting a family member in navigating a hospital admission, or planning a low-cost vacation, Agentic AI acts like a personal concierge—intelligent, intuitive, and always available. This transformation is already underway across highly regulated industries such as financial services, insurance, healthcare, and public utilities. For decades, these sectors focused on reducing costs and shifting customers toward digital channels.

But as adoption grew, so did the complexity of customer needs. The “last mile” of service—where emotions, life choices, or sensitive decisions come into play—requires something far more nuanced than a form or an FAQ page. It demands empathy, personalisation, and clarity. Customers have been eagerly awaiting this, and Agentic AI is now beginning to deliver.

Redefining customer experience
Agentic AI fills the experience gap by offering life-like conversations, deep contextual understanding, and non-judgmental advice. It draws from rich data sets, behavioural patterns, and prior interactions to help customers make informed decisions—even in moments of crisis. It can assist a grieving family in closing a loved one’s financial accounts, coach a young entrepreneur through small business loan options, or simplify complex insurance jargon for an elderly user selecting a health plan.

Beyond convenience, the business case for Agentic AI is compelling. Studies show that customers are nearly four times more likely to return after a positive experience. Yet many companies still struggle with outdated systems, disconnected data, and underwhelming customer support. Agentic AI, when built on a secure and connected infrastructure, not only improves satisfaction but also enables organisations to deliver their promises with speed, consistency, and compassion. The future of customer experience is not just digital. It is deeply personal.

Trust, transparency, and human oversight
Of course, the rise of Agentic AI also brings important concerns, especially around trust, privacy, and transparency. People want to know how their data is being used when they are interacting with a machine and whether they can speak to a human when it matters most. These are not technical details; these are human rights. Regulators and businesses must work together to ensure that transparency, consent, and accountability are embedded into every AI-powered interaction. AI should never operate in a black box.

A human-AI partnership
This is not a battle between humans and machines. It is a partnership. The goal is not to replace the human touch, but to enhance it—to make every service faster, fairer, more inclusive, and more accessible, while preserving the warmth, empathy, and reassurance that only a human can give.

Agentic AI, when guided by ethical leadership and supported by inclusive education, has the power to transform how we live, work, and relate to the world around us. It offers us not just speed, but support. Not just efficiency, but dignity. Not just answers but understanding.

Shift in jobs: A time to re-skill and rethink
As this new wave of technology emerges, some traditional roles will undoubtedly become redundant. Repetitive, rule-based tasks are already being automated. However, new kinds of jobs will also be created, roles that require creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, digital literacy, and above all, human judgment. To the youth of today, the message is simple: the jobs of tomorrow will not be defined by repetition or routine. They will be defined by innovation, empathy, and adaptability.

Students must focus not just on scoring well in exams, but on asking better questions. Learn to work with technology, but also learn to lead it with purpose. Skills such as design thinking, communication, ethics, entrepreneurship, and human-centred problem-solving will be far more valuable than memorising formulas or dates. Education must evolve not just to teach us how the world works, but to empower us to change it.

A call to policymakers: Rethink school education
Policymakers must recognise that the world our children are entering is vastly different from the one we were educated in. If we want India to lead in the age of intelligent automation, our education system—starting from the school level—must evolve beyond rote memorisation. We must promote problem-solving, collaboration, digital fluency, and experiential learning. Creativity must be encouraged. Failure must be de-stigmatised. Every child must be taught not just how to use tools, but how to imagine new ones. Preparing our next generation means preparing them for a world where AI is a co-worker, a collaborator, and a powerful companion.

The rise of Agentic AI marks a profound shift in how we serve customers, prepare our workforce, and shape our society. But this transformation must be led by purpose, not just technology. Let us step into this new era with confidence and compassion, ensuring that our digital future is not only intelligent but also deeply humane.

(Thomas John Muthoot is the chairman of Muthoot FinCorp Ltd and chairman of CII Southern Region)