AI innovation and exploration is set to continue at lightning speed in 2026. Governments and companies worldwide see exponential growth in AI applications.

Analog Devices (ADI) predicts agentic AI will give rise to physically intelligent models, trained via physically accurate simulation environments, and that it will have its agentic “inception” moment with the emergence of micro-intelligence.

However, The IEEE’s recent data from 400 global technology leaders highlighted the main concerns, levels of adoption and the top skills enterprises are seeking in AI-related roles.

Some 50% of the global CIOs, CTOs, IT directors and senior technology leaders are concerned about over reliance on AI (50%).

“AI systems have some degree of autonomy – how much depends upon the risk assessment level of the system and the impact it can have on human beings and society. As Agentic AI systems are complex, clear transparency protocols and processes for the explainability of automated decisions will need to be established. The perspectives and requirements of diverse users should also be considered and different approaches to understandability of goals that impact them should be considered,” said Keeley Crockett, Senior IEEE Member and Professor of Computational Intelligence at Manchester Metropolitan University. “We need transparency of when AI and Agentic AI systems are being used, what data they use and how it is being used. We should also prioritise those systems that provide clear and easy to understand explanations of automated decisions – there should be no secret data transactions. We can also choose not to use these systems for high-risk personal decision making.

“Looking forward, we need to ensure that Agentic AI systems are ethically deployed and used. Such systems need to align with human values,” added Crockett.