Agentic AI Replaces Generative AI

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CES 2026 Preview: "Agentic AI" Replaces Generative AI

Pre-show reports confirm that CES 2026 (kicking off this week) has officially shifted its primary theme from "Generative AI" to "Agentic AI." Key reveals include Samsung’s Gauss 2 platform, which proactively manages smart homes (e.g., ordering groceries without prompts), and Intel’s Panther Lake chips designed to run privacy-first agents locally on PCs.
Strategic Implication: Hardware is finally catching up to software, enabling "local agents" that reduce latency and cloud costs—a critical step for mass consumer adoption.

Google: “Agents become core workflows” (5 shifts for 2026)

Google’s 2026 AI Agent Trends framing is that we’re moving from “prompting” to goal-driven, multi-step execution under human oversight. The piece includes concrete enterprise metrics (e.g., Telus: 57,000+ employees using AI, saving ~40 minutes per interaction; Suzano: ~95% reduction in query time for ~50,000 employees via a Gemini-Pro-powered NL→SQL agent) and highlights multi-agent coordination plus Agent2Agent (A2A) as a foundation for cross-platform interoperability.

“AI agents arrived” — MCP → tool-using agents → agentic browsers

A Jan 3 explainer maps how “agents” moved from theory to mainstream usage, pointing to Model Context Protocol (MCP) as the tooling inflection that made tool-using, API-calling systems practical and arguing that 2025’s visible wave was “agentic browsers” (browser as an actor, not just an interface). It also calls out the A2A + MCP combo as complementary standards (tools + inter-agent comms), which is the strategic signal: the stack is standardizing, so distribution shifts toward whoever owns workflows + trust.

Orq.ai Closes €5M Seed Round to Close Enterprise AI Production Gap

Orq.ai, an enterprise platform for building, deploying, and managing production-grade AI agents, closed an oversubscribed €5 million seed round (bringing total funding to €7.3M since 2022). The company now serves 100+ enterprises including Brand New Day Bank, Moneybird, and Keyrus. Its newly launched Agent Studio and Agent Runtime handle the entire agent lifecycle from design and evaluation to deployment across cloud, hybrid, or on-premise environments. Orq.ai claims teams deploy agents 67% faster and reclaim 10% of engineering capacity previously spent on custom infrastructure. The round includes strategic advisors from McKinsey (QuantumBlack), payments leader Mollie, and online supermarket Picnic, signaling enterprise confidence in addressing the pilot-to-production chasm.

VoAgents Launches No-Code Voice AI Platform for Enterprise Automation

VoAgents released an enterprise voice AI platform designed to move beyond rigid IVR systems to natural, context-aware conversations. The no-code interface lets teams design agent behaviors via drag-and-drop workflows, deploy within days, and scale across unlimited concurrent conversations. Applications span customer service (resolving inquiries autonomously), lead qualification, appointment scheduling, and outbound campaign calling. Voice agents represent the missing modality in the agentic ecosystem—while text-based agents dominate headlines, voice-first deployments are quietly becoming critical infrastructure for contact centers and sales operations.

What to Watch this Week

 🎙️AI on Fire: Real Builders. Real Heat.

Stories from founders building AI Agents. Explore all episodes here

⚔️ AArena: The Battleground for AI

Stop demo-hopping. One workspace. Every agent. Real results.

👉 Enter the Arena | 👉 See the Battleboard

🏆 The Leaderboard Never Sleeps

The global ranking of AI agents is shifting every day. Who’s on top? Who just dropped?

👉 Explore the Leaderboard →

🗺️ The Map of AI Agents (Live & Growing)

We’re charting the entire AI agent ecosystem — thousands of options across categories.
Your next agent is already on the map.

👉 Explore the Landscape Map →