From “Agents” to Autonomy: A Practical Framework for Agentic AI (Levels 1–5)

December 11, 2025
Agentic AI isn’t just a binary “bot or not”, it lives on a spectrum of autonomy. There are five levels: from basic rule-based helpers, to tool-using assistants, up to fully autonomous agents that can plan, act, and self-manage with little or no human oversight. This framework gives teams a practical way to match AI systems to their needs, balancing usefulness, control, and risk: simpler tasks might be fine for low-autonomy agents, while complex, long-horizon jobs could benefit from more advanced agentic workflows.