Agentic AI for business: How small businesses are applying AI agents in 2025

Small businesses are moving from experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI) to integrating it into their daily business operations. It's with good reason: Business owners are finding that AI agents and tools are saving them time, improving their decision-making, and generating new growth. 

In 2025, 68% of small businesses report using AI regularly, which is up 42% from last year, according to the latest Small Business Insights survey commissioned by Intuit QuickBooks. Meanwhile, about 1 in 10 business owners identify as early adopters of agentic AI, or AI agents that can pursue a goal with minimal hand-holding. With agentic AI, they're unlocking tools like automated customer support, streamlined financial management, and operational efficiency.

As generative AI (GenAI) continues to aid business owners with making creative assets, agentic AI is transforming operations through savvy, goal-oriented actions: classifying transactions, reconciling accounts, following up on invoices, organizing leads, and more. The result? Businesses that are more productive and efficient, saving and making more money, and freeing up humans to do what they do best.

AI agents: What are they?

AI agents are an application of artificial intelligence that takes in information and makes decisions with minimal human guidance.

In other words, an AI agent might watch your inbox for unpaid invoices, send polite reminders, reconcile a payment when it lands, and update your cash flow forecast—without you prompting it every step of the way. 

AI agents are like virtual assistants for any variety of tasks in your business. Their autonomous, goal-oriented behavior is what makes agentic AI different from generative AI.

How do AI agents work?

Think of an AI agent as a helpful teammate who can watch what’s happening in your business, make smart choices, and take action on your behalf. Behind the scenes, most agents follow a simple cycle:

1. Observing. The agent takes in information from the tools you already use, like your bank feed, customer relationship management (CRM) software, or inventory tracker. Just as you keep an eye on your inbox or check sales reports, the agent scans these data sources for updates.
2. Reasoning and planning. Next, the agent decides what to do with that information. Instead of just reacting to one event at a time, it looks at the bigger picture. For example, it might weigh how long a customer invoice has been overdue or notice patterns in your expense categories before choosing the best next step.
3. Acting. Finally, the agent carries out the task, with varying levels of human oversight. It could mean sending a friendly reminder to a customer, categorizing a new transaction, or creating a to-do in your project management tool. Because agents can connect to multiple apps, they can complete an entire workflow from start to finish.

What makes agents powerful is the feedback loop. After taking an action, they learn from the outcome—whether a customer paid, a transaction was reconciled correctly, or a workflow saved time—and human feedback. With every cycle, the agent gets better at supporting your business without needing constant oversight to execute correctly.

Types of AI agents

There are generally five types of AI agents, and there are potential small business applications for each one.

Simple reflex agents

These agents follow straightforward logic: if this, then that. For example, "If an invoice is overdue by seven days, send a reminder." They don’t look at past behavior or long-term goals—they just respond directly to what’s happening right now.

Model-based reflex agents

These are the next step up from simple reflex agents and have an internal model of the world that informs their condition-based logic. For example, they might check to see whether the customer has emailed or called the business in the past week before sending the overdue invoice reminder.

Goal-oriented agents

These agents evaluate what action to take based on whether it would move the business closer to a defined goal. If the objective you assign the agent is “reduce accounts receivable to under 15 days,” the agent might decide to prioritize persuasive follow-up communication to meet its goal.

Utility-based agents

These agents assign "utility value"—the perceived usefulness—to actions in order to weigh the trade-offs of an action. They seek to optimize results, not just meet a goal. For instance, they might send a firm invoice payment reminder to a new client but a friendlier one to a long-time customer—balancing getting paid on time with keeping good relationships.

Learning agents

The most advanced type of agents, learning agents improve over time by observing the outcome of their actions. If they notice that text reminders get faster payments from one group of customers while emails work better for another, they’ll adjust their approach automatically. Learning AI agents adapt to deliver better results, without additional effort from you.

6 common applications of agentic AI for small businesses

Agentic AI can be deployed across the most critical small business functions, helping owners streamline their operations and unlock new efficiencies.

1. Customer relationship management

How it works: AI agents monitor shared inboxes and chat, identify leads, draft replies, schedule meetings, update the CRM, and nudge deals forward. Solutions like Intercom's Fin and HubSpot's Customer Agent can automate much of customer conversations.

Key benefits: Faster follow-ups, better engagement, and higher conversion for revenue growth with minimal effort.

2. Financial management

How it works: AI bookkeeping agents categorize transactions, detect anomalies, and reconcile accounts. AI payments agents follow up on late invoices and help optimize how you get paid. Both of these AI agents are available to manage small business finances in Intuit QuickBooks.

Key benefits: Cleaner books, better cash flow visibility, and fewer costly manual errors.

3. Workflow and inventory automation

How it works: AI agents can track stock levels, flag discrepancies, reorder from vendors, optimize your supply chain, and coordinate deliveries. Shopify's Sidekick acts as a store-ops assistant that surfaces insights and executes tasks.

Key benefits: Reduced stockouts, fewer operational delays, and more time saved for staff.

4. Payroll and HR automation

How it works: AI agents can draft payroll runs, compute deductions, track employee timesheets, and monitor compliance. Workday's Recruiting Agent and Deel's Payroll Detective can support small business human resources functions.

Key benefits: Streamlined recruiting and management processes, and accurate, on-time payroll that requires less effort.

5. Product development and innovation

How it works: AI agents can mine public reviews and sales feedback to summarize customer requests, do market research, and help with product design and launch. ML6 offers agentic product innovation, while platforms like Salesforce Agentforce and Zapier Agents let you build custom agents.

Key benefits: Clear insight into what customers want, quick understanding of supply chain and product feasibility, and a faster product development process.

6. Business analysis

How it works: AI agents focused on data science can turn your business's raw data and environmental factors into informed forecasts, actionable analysis, and strategic business recommendations. Agents like causaLens's Digital Workers can autonomously analyze, model, and forecast based on large data sets.

Key benefits: Comprehensive data analysis, confidence in decision-making, and corporate-level insights for your small business.

Key advantages of agentic AI for SMBs

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can experience some distinct advantages from using AI agents, which can empower smarter and faster work. Small business owners said the top three benefits they get from using AI in general are more revenue, shorter days, and lower costs.

When it comes to agentic AI, these benefits are some of the most prominent:

Smarter autonomous decision-making

Agentic AI systems can analyze data, make informed decisions, and take actions based on pre-defined goals—or even learn to optimize their own strategies.

Time savings and efficiency

You can offload repeatable work, like categorizing expenses, responding to customer questions, and drafting invoice reminder emails. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of small business owners said that AI is boosting their productivity, according to the Small Business Insights survey.

Increased accuracy

With AI agents keeping data up to date, watching for compliance, and spotting inconsistencies, you can count on more accurate records.

Enhanced scalability

AI agents can add capacity to your team without increasing your headcount, and they can analyze huge amounts of data in minutes instead of hours or weeks.

Lower costs

AI agents can automate routine work (and often do it more efficiently), reduce expensive manual errors, and save humans time on repetitive or trying tasks.

Simple, all-in-one workflows

A single modern platform may cover the range of agents you most need—like QuickBooks—or integrate across the apps and software you already use.

Disadvantages of agentic AI

Like all new technologies, agentic AI isn't without its downsides. Opponents cite the environmental impact of AI, and AI agents might replace some job functions. Here are a few disadvantages, as well as how to mitigate them:

Initial investment costs

Some tools require expensive subscriptions or custom configurations. Mitigate these by taking advantage of agentic AI built into platforms you already use, or by piloting your agentic AI use with just one high-value workflow.

Data quality dependency

Agentic AI decisions are only as good as the data the agent is trained on; poor data can lead to misguided actions. Do your research on the AI agent before using it, and be sure the business data you feed it is up to date and accurate.

Oversight required

While mostly autonomous, agentic AI needs regular monitoring and occasional tweaks to ensure accuracy. Keep humans in the loop, review its logs, and monitor any trade-offs between cost and quality.

Real-world examples of agentic AI in small businesses

So you're sold on using AI agents in your business. But what, exactly, might that look like? Here are some specific examples of how businesses are using agentic AI in the real world.

Streamlined inventory management

Example: A Shopify merchant uses Sidekick to create reports, generate content, and suggest marketing campaigns.

Benefit: Better data for decision-making and lower effort marketing that drives sales.

Efficient client and customer management

Example: A services firm deploys HubSpot’s Customer Agent to resolve customer issues, answer product questions, and provide pricing information.

Benefit: Higher customer satisfaction, faster responses, and more sales conversions.

Real-time feedback and data management

Example: A medical clinic using TeleVox's SMART Agent captures patients' self-reported symptoms in real time via text message, so providers have the full picture when the visit starts.

Benefit: Patient satisfaction, reduction in burnout for staff, and better patient care.

Product development and innovation

Example: A startup using Salesforce Agentforce configures an agent that analyzes customer surveys and public reviews to generate a prioritized list of feature requests.

Benefit: Customer-driven product decisions that increase revenue.

Automated payroll

Example: A shop creates a Microsoft Copilot Studio AI agent to validate timesheets, flag anomalies, and prep payroll exports.

Benefit: Fewer payroll errors and faster approvals for happier employees.

Smarter bookkeeping

Example: A construction contractor activates QuickBooks Accounting and Payments agents to categorize transactions, resolve financial anomalies, and follow up on invoices.

Benefit: Clean and accurate books for better business decisions, healthier cash flow, and saved time.

Most popular agentic AI tools for SMBs in 2025

Agentic AI is still actively evolving in 2025, and companies are rapidly innovating to bring new AI agents to market. Some agentic AI solutions are ready to serve businesses out of the box, and others may require customization to bring to life. Currently, the top three tasks small business owners are using AI for are marketing, customer service, and administrative work, according to the 2025 Small Business Insights survey. Consider trying one of these agentic AI solutions to help you:

• Intuit AI agents: A team of integrated AI agents help you manage and grow your business in Intuit QuickBooks.
• ChatGPT agent: The widely used platform's new AI agent can execute actions across the internet, with the user's permission.
• HubSpot Breeze agents: These AI agents, some still in beta, offer customer support, prospecting, and marketing.
• Zendesk AI agents: Chatting with customers and resolving their issues can be handled at all hours on Zendesk.
• Intercom Fin: This configurable customer service agent can resolve complex queries and work with other platforms.
• Shopify Sidekick: This agentic AI brings commerce knowledge to help customers analyze, plan, and execute tasks.
• Zoom AI Companion: Zoom's AI agent can take notes and complete action items, even while you continue to talk.
• Zapier Agents: With its connections to hundreds of apps, Zapier lets you build custom AI agents.
• Gemini Gems: Mini AI agents, including some pre-made by Google, can help you with specific tasks.
• Salesforce Agentforce: There's an array of pre-built and customizable autonomous agents across business functions.
• Microsoft Copilot Studio: Build your own AI agent without needing coding expertise.

5 ways to know if I can leverage agentic AI for my small business

It's likely that there's some aspect of your work in your small business that could take advantage of an AI agent to automate the task. Here's what to look for to decide whether agentic AI could help you reclaim time and manage work more efficiently.

1. You have repeatable, rules-driven work.

If your team relies on checklists or step-by-step processes, an agent can usually handle the first stretch of that flow—freeing you up for the parts that need a human touch.

2. Your data is accessible.

Bank feeds, invoices, CRM notes, and product details live in tools like QuickBooks, Shopify, or your email. When that information is easy to access, agents can put it to work, all in one place.

3. You can define what success looks like.

Maybe it’s categorizing expenses correctly 99% of the time or reducing how long it takes to get paid from 35 days to 20. Clear outcomes give agents direction and give you confidence in the results.

4. You’re prepared to review and refine.

Agents get smarter with feedback. Having someone on your team keep an eye on early actions, review logs, and make small adjustments helps AI agents perform in alignment with your expectations.

5. You need more capacity without another hire.

Agents don’t sleep or take vacations—they can respond to messages after hours, reconcile weekly, and analyze large sets of data quickly. When budgets are tight, AI agents can handle autonomous tasks while your team focuses on customers and strategy.

If you're ready to give agentic AI a try, treat it like a short experiment rather than a sweeping overhaul. Start with one task that eats up time every week, like chasing down late invoices or qualifying new leads in your inbox. Pick something repetitive and rules-driven, where you can set an easy-to-measure goal as the outcome. When you turn on the agent, set up guardrails so you have final approval and the agent can learn from your course correction. Review goals and accomplishments on a weekly basis, and expand your use when you feel comfortable with the results you're getting.

If you want to learn more about artificial intelligence before diving in, try one of these 10 AI courses that can help small business owners upskill.

How QuickBooks AI agents help small businesses

QuickBooks now features a smart, powerful combination of Intuit AI agents working overtime for you. All in one place, with one job to do: empower your business to be more efficient and productive.

Intuit AI agents can complete work for you, handling the day-to-day tasks on your behalf, such as sending invoices, tracking payments, reconciling your books, and even helping manage your customer leads.

• Accounting Agent: Keeps your books clean and accurate by automatically categorizing transactions, detecting and resolving anomalies, and reconciling accounts—flagging what needs approval or attention from you or your accountant.
• Payments Agent: Helps you get paid faster, and pay bills on time. Monitors your cash flow and optimizes invoicing and payment collection.
• Customer Agent [BETA]: Sources leads from your inbox, drafts personalized email responses, and tracks every customer opportunity in your sales cycle.
• Finance Agent: Analyzes your financial data and automatically creates forecasts, highlights variances, and pinpoints the source to help you stay on track to your goals.
• Project Management Agent [BETA]: Generates project estimates from your documents and automates project setup to help ensure projects are profitable.

Bringing agentic AI into your business with QuickBooks

Agentic AI has moved from a buzzword to a set of tools that can provide real advantages to small businesses in 2025. AI agents help you save time, maximize efficiency, make decisions confidently, and improve your financial outcomes. They handle the repetitive tasks—categorizing transactions, following up on invoices, reconciling accounts—so you and your employees can focus on doing what you love.

Ready to give agentic AI a try? You'll find a team of AI agents ready to assist you with all your business tasks when you start using QuickBooks Online today.