The next year could bring more developments. Enterprises could embed agents in their workflows. It could also lead to an orchestration infrastructure and better reasoning models.

For many, a future with AI agents resembles the Marvel Cinematic Universe character J.A.R.V.I.S.

J.A.R.V.I.S., the acronym for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System, began as a natural language computer system created by Tony Stark, a fictional industrialist and brilliant investor. It later became an AI system that served as Stark's assistant. Much later, J.A.R.V.I.S. gained a synthetic body and became the android Vision.

While AI agents -- autonomous and semi-autonomous generative AI systems that can take action on their own -- might be far from having the ability to gain bodies, they might get close to or surpass J.A.R.V.I.S. at some point next year.

The growth in the popularity of AI agents in the latter months of 2024 mirrors how ChatGPT and other generative AI systems catapulted into and transformed the AI market in 2022. Vendors seemingly jumped from developing the latest large language models (LLMs) and AI chatbots to creating agents and action models.

For example, Salesforce last fall introduced Agentforce, its low-code agent builder. Microsoft introduced AI Agents Service, a community hub that helps developers build AI agents.

Other vendors have also introduced AI agents to enterprises to automate various business processes. Analyst firm Forrester Research lists 400 vendors now building agents.

"There's a lot of excitement right now about them," said Craig Le Clair, an analyst at Forrester Research. "There's also a fair amount of risk when you're unleashing an automation that can proceed without human checks and balances towards the goal."

The excitement and the risk mean that AI experts and vendors have many expectations for AI agents in 2025.