Artificial intelligence (AI) has come a long way in just a few years. The hype around generative AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E was just the beginning. What we’re seeing now is a shift into something deeper, more autonomous, and potentially more transformative: agentic AI.
It’s not another buzzword; it’s a new way of thinking about how work gets done.
If you manage digital signage networks or workplace experience systems, this evolution isn’t theoretical. When you pair the creativity of generative AI with the autonomy of agentic AI, you get smarter workflows, better user experiences, and a whole lot less manual overhead.
Generative AI: The Creative Workhorse
Let’s start with what we know. Generative AI is what caused the first AI boom to make waves in everyday work. It’s the tech that helps you write your blog posts, build marketing assets in minutes, and even code your website. These tools work by digesting huge datasets and producing content that feels surprisingly human.
What is powering this revolution? Large language models (LLMs) and deep learning algorithms. They learn from patterns and generate things that are coherent, relevant, and often pretty impressive.
But there’s a catch: generative AI doesn’t act unless you tell it to. It needs you to provide a prompt. It won’t make decisions or execute tasks on its own. In other words, it’s brilliant at creating content, but it’s not going to do much without your explicit instruction.
For digital workplace teams, it shines in areas like branded content creation, signage templates, and visual messaging. It turns what used to take hours into minutes. That’s a win.
It also shines in areas where human moderation is critical. The communications appearing on digital signage are a critical part of your organization’s brand strategy. You want messaging that resonates and reinforces your brand value—nothing less. This makes human moderation an integral part of the workflow.
Agentic AI: Smarter, Autonomous Systems
How is agentic AI different from generative AI? It doesn’t wait for instructions. It works toward goals. Think of it as AI with a to-do list, autonomy, and the ability to adapt on the fly.
These systems are built from multiple agents, each handling a piece of the puzzle, and they talk to each other to figure out the best path forward. They can pull in real-time data called model context protocol (like APIs for AI), make decisions, and adjust based on outcomes. That’s a rather big leap from just generating text or images based on specific instructions.
Agentic AI mirrors how humans solve problems: perceive, reason, act, learn, and collaborate. The result? Systems that don’t just suggest ideas—they get things done.
When to Use Generative vs. Agentic AI: Strategic Fit
The real trick isn’t picking one over the other; it’s knowing when to lean on each. Generative AI is your go-to for creativity: think campaign visuals, internal messaging, or branded content. But with that creative power comes a responsibility to moderate and vet what’s produced. Enter the human-in-the-loop model.
This is where agentic AI could pick up the baton. It can streamline the entire moderation workflow: generating compelling content aligned with your brand guidelines, flagging inappropriate content, and routing assets to the right people for review. But let’s be clear —it should never push people out of the loop. Instead, it empowers teams to maintain oversight, ensuring output aligns with brand, compliance, and safety standards.
By pairing generative AI’s speed with agentic AI’s structure, and layering in thoughtful human checks, you won’t just scale content creation—you’ll improve accountability, too. This balance matters, especially in high-visibility environments like corporate communications, digital signage, or internal knowledge hubs.
AI in the Real-World: Digital Signage & Workplace Booking
When you’re managing digital signage, generative AI makes it easy to spin up branded visuals and contextual messages across dozens or even hundreds of screens. It’s a massive time-saver.
Then you can take it a step further, bringing in agentic AI to manage content delivery, monitor screen engagement, and adjust on the fly based on real-time data. You’re no longer just displaying content—you’re optimizing it dynamically and safely, with human oversight baked into the loop.
The same combo works wonders for workplace booking systems. Agentic AI analyzes how spaces are used, predicts demand, and recommends reservations. It even adjusts availability based on real-time occupancy. Generative AI can layer in personalized messaging and guidance, such as content for digital wayfinding.
How to Make AI Work for Your Workplace
If you’re leading the charge on AI for your workplace, you’ve got to think beyond tools. This is about strategy. Know when to rely on generative AI, when agentic AI should take the lead, and, most importantly, how the two connect.
Get started with generative and agentic AI while maintaining human accountability and transparency by:
- Investing in data governance, ensuring AI systems have the info they need.
- Planning for scale—generative AI scales with more content; agentic AI scales with more complexity.
- Building feedback loops where human moderation plays a central role in refining and approving what AI produces.
Ultimately, this shift requires a culture change. AI tools can reshape workflows, but only if your teams are ready to embrace them and own the outcomes.
At Korbyt, we’re not just working to automate tasks; we’re building intelligent systems that think, adapt, and improve. Generative AI got us started. Agentic AI takes us further. Together they’re the future of the digital workplace. And for those ready to lead, that future is already here.
