By Cheryl Ållebrand, Managing Consultant, CGI.
AI is no longer a futuristic concept for most organisations, it’s already here. The question is no longer whether to use it, but how to use it well. Increasingly, we’re seeing the conversation elevate beyond individual uses to where AI can assist in workflows. These are practical, everyday applications where in-built AI can remove friction, accelerate decision-making, and help people get on with the work that matters.
This is where agentic AI, a style of building AI “specialists” into workflows, comes into its own. Unlike traditional automation, which is rule-based, and often rigid, agentic AI can handle nuance, make context-aware decisions, and defer to a person when it’s unsure. It’s a model designed for real-world use, especially in environments where tasks vary, information arrives in different formats, and actions need to be taken quickly but responsibly. This approach resonated strongly with clients at our recent inaugural UK AI event. Once we introduced the concept of agentic AI, it was clear that this is what many organisations are already looking for: AI that takes action when it should, and steps back when it needs to and, importantly, keeps humans in the loop. It’s an approach that uses AI to do the heavy lifting so that only a light human touch is required to check the work, or that handles the repetitive task, so that by the time it’s handed to the human they can just get on with the real work.
From point solutions to integrated intelligence
Many early AI pilots focused either on boosting individual productivity through prompting tools for writing support, or on creating simplistic FAQ chatbots. While these tools can be useful in isolation, they don’t always address the underlying business processes that consume time and create bottlenecks. Increasingly, we’re seeing a shift towards AI that supports core operations, like handling inbound requests, managing triage, creating cases, and guiding response workflows.
These aren’t glamorous use cases, but they’re essential. Shared inboxes that receive too many messages, requests that go untracked, and responses written from scratch each time all add unnecessary friction. Over time, these inefficiencies slow down response times, increase workloads and reduce visibility and accountability. The result? Lost time, higher costs and lower team morale.
This is where agentic AI is most effective. Not by replacing platforms or people, but by adding a lightweight layer of intelligence that improves how things flow.
Introducing structure, not complexity
When the topic of Agentic AI comes up, there’s often understandable concern that the agents will get things wrong or that giving them too “free hands” without the right guardrails will lead to unnecessary costs.
Agentic AI doesn’t replace your team, it works with them. And importantly, the way we build doesn’t require a complete system overhaul. We recently worked with a client to enhance their existing setup using the component-based architecture of our configurable Intelligent Modular Agent (IMA). The IMA can be grounded in a rules-based approach where complexity is low or employ AutoGen for more complex decisioning, providing a safe and cost-effective path to ease into agent use.
The client, a major UK sports venue, had a main customer inbox that handled everything from lost property and event questions to urgent safety-related reports. All of it landed in the same place, with no clear process to distinguish the routine from the urgent. The result? Delays, duplication, and pressure on the team to manage a flow of messages that just kept growing.
AI agents now support their inbox in five important ways:
· Understanding intent — recognising what each message is about
· Classifying and routing — ensuring messages reach the right team or department, quickly
· Creating CRM cases — populating templates with essential information enabling teams to respond quickly and track progress
· Drafting responses — based on existing company information, in the company’s tone of voice
· Escalating to humans — whenever a message is unclear, sensitive or high risk.
Crucially, this did not require a big system change . They were able to make better use of the Microsoft systems already in place while new Microsoft components were integrated seamlessly. And they gained a clearer, more manageable flow, giving the teams more time to focus on resolving issues rather than sorting through them.
Why this approach is working
Clients tell us the value of this approach lies in three things:
1. It focuses on solving real, immediate problems – not long-term transformation
2. It reduces pressure on teams – by handling repetitive, time-consuming tasks
3. It can be introduced quickly and adjusted over time – without major risk or cost.
Because IMA is modular, it grows with you. You can add components that make sense to your processes, like image recognition and document handling. There are myriad
ways this modular architecture helps you solve the issues having most impact on the growth of your business.
Interested to see how it works?
The Intelligent Modular Agent is already helping clients reduce manual effort, improve consistency, and make better use of the tools they already rely on.
If you’re looking for a practical way to apply AI where it counts, without increasing complexity, it’s a good place to start. To find out more about how IMA could help your organisation, please connect or get in touch with me here. More detailed information about IMA available here: Download the brochure
Related content:
https://www.cgi.com/uk/artificial-intelligence
From AI to ROI: More, better, faster and safer outcomes with agentic AI | CGI UK
The AI agent revolution: Why enterprises must act now | CGI.com
AI-powered service transformation: why ChatGPT is just the beginning | CGI UK
Applying AI to the real world brochure
Read the latest edition, Spring 2025, of Sync NI here completely free of charge.
Subscribe to the Sync NI newsletter for all the latest technology news, jobs and upcoming events in Northern Ireland.
Visit Sync NI online for the latest technology news in Northern Ireland.
