Agentic AI shows promise — but also carries risk

The release of DeepSeek’s V3 and R1 large language models (LLMs) in January exemplified how disruptive this new AI era of LLM technologies is becoming (see The DeepSeek paradox: more efficiency, more infrastructure?).

Agentic AI, a form of AI that can operate autonomously and relies on LLM technology, has been gaining significant momentum, over the past 12 months in enterprise software/software as a service (SaaS). Companies such as Microsoft, ServiceNow and Salesforce — familiar names to data center operators — now offer customers both the tools to build their own AI agents and other ready-to-use agents delivered as a service. Data center vendor Siemens launched an industrial copilot in January 2025, in partnership with Microsoft, which now provides engineers with real-time querying, metrics and reports such as cycle time performance and machine error alerts.