Ask Agentic Software Vendors These Questions Before Buying

A short article argues that “agentic” has become a ubiquitous software marketing term, but that executives often lack a clear definition to test vendor claims. It provides a set of practical questions to help leaders determine whether a product is truly AI-native or simply adds AI features. The article urges buyers to probe how deeply the system integrates data, what level of human oversight is required, and whether it maintains persistent context beyond prompt-by-prompt interactions. It also highlights the need to understand how approval workflows are handled and whether outputs can be audited. Products that excel in these areas, built with AI from inception, are positioned to deliver more enterprise value.