Key differences and applications of agentic AI vs. GenAI for a small business owner

As a small business owner, there’s a chance you’re using artificial intelligence (AI) to help with digital tasks and make your business more productive. In fact, according to a recent QuickBooks survey, more than half of US small businesses say AI is boosting their productivity. Whether you’re writing marketing emails, drafting invoice reminders, or creating copy for social media posts, generative AI (GenAI) helps speed up the process.

Now, a new type of AI is bursting onto the scene, with exciting new applications for busy business owners. It's called agentic AI, and its purpose is to act as an independent agent. It's able to make decisions, perform goal-oriented actions and automate complex processes with minimal human input. It helps business owners confidently make smarter decisions and be more efficient than ever before.

Read on to discover benefits of agentic AI and how it differs from generative AI. 

Key takeaways from this article:

• Learn what agentic AI and generative AI are.
• Discover the key differences between these two forms of AI.
• Understand real-life implications and practical applications of agentic AI.
• Explore effective strategies for leveraging both agentic AI and generative AI in your business operations.

What’s the main difference between agentic AI vs. GenAI

The main difference between agentic AI and GenAI lies in their core functions: achieving something versus creating something.

Agentic AI is a technology that can make decisions and perform goal-oriented actions with little human guidance. 

Generative AI is a technology that creates new content based on existing data patterns and prompts given by humans. The main difference between agentic AI and GenAI lies in their core functions: achieving something versus creating something.

Agentic AI defined

Agentic AI is a technology designed to perform tasks autonomously, make decisions, and automate complex processes. It focuses on goal-oriented actions, allowing it to manage and execute various operations with minimal human intervention. This type of AI excels in dynamic environments where it needs to assess situations and respond accordingly.

Agentic AI can help business owners by planning, reasoning, and executing complex business workflows, saving them time and giving them confidence in decision-making. 

Key benefits of agentic AI:

• Saves business owners time by managing books, payments, and other tedious tasks, moving business forward faster.
• Uses deep learning and data analysis to help business owners make smarter, more confident decisions.
• Boosts productivity and growth by streamlining cashflow and other financial insights.

How does it work?

Agentic AI systems work by using algorithms to analyze data, identify objectives, plan actions, and execute those plans. Generative AI is often a component of agentic AI models, allowing it to create new content. Agentic AI systems continuously monitor their performance and adjust strategies based on feedback, enabling them to learn and improve over time. 

Generative AI defined

Generative AI is a technology designed to create new text, images, and code by learning from huge sets of data. It identifies patterns and uses them to generate new outputs based on its inputs. It generally requires a human to feed it a prompt, whether directly or indirectly, in order to create content. 

Common GenAI tools that businesses use include ChatGPT, Claude, Google's Gemini, and Intuit Assist. As an example, Intuit Assist uses the power of generative AI to create intelligent and personalized recommendations to fuel small business and personal financial success. 

Practical Gen AI uses:

• Automate and create new types of content to save time.
• Generate personalized customer responses.
• Perform research and brainstorm ideas.
• Automate rote financial tasks.

This article outlines eight ways business owners can use GenAI to automate and save time in their businesses.

How does it work?

Generative AI models work by "training" on large amounts of data, building on machine learning (ML). With some GenAI tools, businesses can feed their own datasets, documents, and other information into the system, so the technology can cater to their specific needs and internal data. 

Key differences between agentic AI vs. GenAI

Agentic AI focuses on automating actions and decisions around a goal, while generative AI focuses on creating content. 

For small business owners, this translates to agentic AI streamlining operations and working independently toward a requested outcome while GenAI generates words, ideas, images, or code—useful for planning, communications, and marketing. 

For example, agentic AI can act as a customer service representative who proactively resolves issues for customers who reach out, while generative AI can create copy and images for marketing materials when prompted with the relevant details by a human.

Benefits of agentic AI

Agentic AI offers substantial operational advantages for small businesses. By automating routine tasks, it frees up valuable staff time so employees can focus on more strategic and high-value activities. 

Key benefits:

• Automate routine tasks: Enhance productivity by automating invoice processing and expense tracking with agentic AI.
• Reduce errors: Enhance the accuracy of critical operations like accounting and inventory management through real-time data analysis. This also ensures that data is always up-to-date. 
• Make smarter decisions: Agentic AI can use deep learning and data analysis to provide predictive analytics, which enable businesses to foresee potential risks, proactively implement mitigation strategies, and make decisions with confidence.
• Simplify your business: Run your business with more efficiency, accuracy, and strategic planning by taking advantage of agentic AI that uses a single platform.
• Save time: Business owners become more efficient and productive when agentic AI manages books, payments, and other tedious tasks.

Agentic AI use cases: How agentic AI can be used

Trying to figure out how to integrate agentic AI in your business? Here are some ideas:

• Streamline your invoice processing and expense tracking.
• Automate your customer service operations with AI-driven chatbot systems.
• Manage your supply chain logistics autonomously to reduce headaches and optimize operational efficiency.

Benefits of generative AI

Generative AI offers significant benefits for small business owners. This technology provides businesses with an advanced resource to support and optimize operations, especially when it comes to planning, communications, and marketing. GenAI excels at saving time for business owners.

Key benefits:

• Save time and money: Reduce both time and labor costs associated with marketing and design efforts by automating content creation processes. 
• Create and innovate: Enhance creative workflows through the integration of data-driven insights, which can foster and accelerate innovation in your business.
• Scale the impact: Efficiently process large datasets to accomplish complex generative tasks. 

GenAI use cases: How GenAI can be used

Trying to figure out how to integrate generative AI in your business? Here are some ideas:

• Generate advertising copy and social media content.
• Craft personalized customer responses for enhanced engagement.
• Create financial reports and forecasts that adapt to market trends.

Generative AI is constantly improving, but remember that it still requires a human touch. Check over all content you've requested from a GenAI tool before implementing the ideas or publishing the content it provides. AI hallucination is always a risk, and GenAI shouldn't replace real human thought and oversight.

How agentic AI and GenAI are used together

The true power emerges when agentic AI and generative AI collaborate in hybrid models. 

Using agentic AI and GenAI example: 

Imagine agentic AI handling the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting of your operational logistics: keeping things running smoothly and efficiently. Meanwhile, generative AI shines on the customer-facing side of your business, crafting dynamic and engaging content for your customers to interact with. Integrating both agentic and generative AI helps you save time and increase efficiency across your business.

QuickBooks integrates both types of AI when Intuit Assist drafts a friendly reminder about an overdue invoice to boost your cash flow, and when Intuit Mailchimp drafts a sale graphic to send customers to spark an uptick in spending. The Intuit platform showcases how these technologies can work together to elevate software functionality and enhance the user experience. Agentic AI and GenAI together can help propel your business forward.

Future of agentic AI and GenAI in business solutions

Artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving. As a point of reference, ChatGPT—which was the first artificial intelligence tool many Americans encountered—was first released in November 2022. Since then, there's been a veritable explosion of generative AI tools and capabilities embedded within software systems that businesses use on a daily basis. Here are some ways you can expect agentic AI and GenAI to speed ahead in business solutions.

Future of Agentic AI

Expect to see even greater automation from agentic AI in the finance and e-commerce sectors to execute on complex workflows and improve business outcomes using planning and reasoning capabilities. Business owners need only approve the work of agentic AI.

Also expect agentic AI to integrate with emerging technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), interacting seamlessly with internet-enabled physical devices. It's a future where AI isn't just a tool but an interconnected part of your entire business ecosystem, driving efficiency and innovation in both the digital and real worlds.

Future of GenAI

Generative AI is also poised for breakthroughs. For example, advancements in natural language processing—a field improving AI's understanding of the way humans natively write and speak—would revolutionize how businesses engage with data, provide customer service, and generate compelling content. It would make it easier to ask for what you need and get natural responses.

GenAI is likely to play an increasing role in personalization engines, allowing businesses to tailor services and products to any specific customer with precision. This could lead to more meaningful interactions and a better customer experience while you work smarter, not harder, to connect with your audience.

Why you should use agentic AI and GenAI

Growing businesses are recognizing the need to tap into AI capabilities to stay competitive, the 2024 Intuit QuickBooks Business Solutions Survey found. A full 89% of the larger small business owners (10-99 employees) agreed that AI is key for business success in today’s economic climate.

But why use agentic AI and GenAI together? Deploying both types of AI offers a powerful strategic advantage when it comes to enabling comprehensive business solutions. Early adopters might find themselves at a competitive advantage, thanks to saving money, time, and energy—three of the most valuable resources for small business owners.

• Money: Nearly all businesses—86% of those surveyed by QuickBooks—are chasing the ambitious goal of increasing revenue and profitability. One way to increase revenue is by saving on operating expenses.
• Time: Survey respondents reported that their businesses spend 25 hours a week on manual data entry and reconciliation—tasks easily automated with AI. 
• Energy: More than 8 in 10 respondents say manual data wrangling has undermined their businesses’ productivity (91%), employee morale (88%), timeliness of financial reporting (87%), and ultimately, overall profitability and growth (85%). 

Employing agentic AI and GenAI in business processes can pave the way for businesses to level up as they save time, money, and energy. These efficiencies give businesses using AI technologies a significant competitive advantage. 

By tapping into agentic AI's capabilities to independently plan, reason, and execute complex business workflows while generative AI delivers creative content in a fraction of the time to enhance and personalize customer experiences, your business isn't just keeping up—it's getting ahead. 

AI is an evolving technology, and it can feel intimidating to jump in. Everyone is a learner at this stage, so you're not alone in testing the waters. And you don't have to figure it all out by yourself; there are great courses available to learn more about AI. 

Making AI even more accessible for small business owners, software companies and platforms like QuickBooks have already integrated artificial intelligence features into their products. You may have already adopted AI without even realizing it! These natural AI integrations are the new industry standard, making powerful AI tools accessible and practical for small businesses like yours. Within QuickBooks, Intuit Assist's AI capabilities help streamline operations, enhance customer engagement, and drive growth by:

• Writing personalized invoice reminders help you get paid 5 days faster on average¹.
• Suggesting payment methods that are more likely to get you paid faster. 
• Pointing out potential cash flow shortages and connecting you with lending services to give your business a boost.
• Creating invoices and expense records in a snap from notes, emails, and photos. 
• Automating transactions and handling administrative tasks so the only thing you’ll need to do is sign off.
• Personalizing messages to your clients, so from first bid to final followup, you’ll spend less time sweating the details.

#Claim

1. Get paid 5 days faster on average when you send invoice reminders with Intuit Assist: Based on U.S. Intuit Assist Beta customers using outstanding invoice notifications and AI-drafted invoice reminder features, compared to customers sending standard invoice reminders to the same customers, from January 2024 to August 2024. Not available in QuickBooks Online Advanced.