The Future of Agentic AI: Navigating Ethical and Societal Implications

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2025 has introduced some terminology into the vocabulary of everyone who is trying to keep up with the pace of innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

“Artificial intelligence agents that can complete tasks for humans on their own have arrived on the tech scene,” MLex reported in January 2025, in response to product introductions at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that point to a future in which “the latest AI technology can make people’s lives better and easier.”

This technology is already being tested and deployed in the legal industry. Welcome to the brave new world of Agentic AI.

The Future of Agentic AI

In the first generation of AI technology, there were “extractive” AI tools that analyzed data and used machine learning algorithms to predict the next word in a sentence or outcome in a scenario. Next we moved to “generative” AI that created new content (i.e., text, images or music) based on how the large language models were trained. We’ve now entered the “agentic” AI stage in which AI agents will be able to converse with users and autonomously carry out tasks on their behalf.

“Agentic AI performs tasks with limited human interaction through software programs known as agents,” reported Law360 Pulse. “By taking action and making decisions, agentic AI differs from generative AI, which focuses more on creating content.”

So while generative AI relies on humans prompting the technology to create content, agentic AI takes action to automatically perform specific tasks for humans.

Navigating Ethical Implications

Agentic AI systems introduce exciting capabilities for consumers and offer businesses a new tool to help their employees work more efficiently and effectively. At the same time, the ability of agentic AI to independently set goals and take action raise important questions about ethical considerations and societal implications for those of us who work in the legal industry.

Some key ethical considerations for businesses to navigate include the following:

• Bias and discrimination — Agentic AI systems can inherit and perpetuate biases present in their training data, so businesses must ensure fairness and avoid implicit discrimination in their AI applications.
• Transparency — It is crucial to understand how agentic AI systems arrive at their decisions in order to build trust and make sure that humans are remaining in the loop to assure accountability.
• Privacy and data security — Agentic AI often handles sensitive personal information, which is particularly concerning for law firms that have an ethical duty to safeguard client data and comply with privacy regulations.
• Job displacement — The automation potential of agentic AI raises concerns about job security for workers, so businesses need to consider how to support any employees who may need to adapt to new roles.

There are also some broader societal implications to the American legal system that will need to be assessed as agentic AI becomes more ubiquitous. For example, agentic AI tools can potentially make access to justice more affordable for individuals, but it is important to ensure equitable access and avoid perpetuating a digital divide. In addition, the use of agentic AI must be carefully managed to maintain public trust in the legal system, which is going to require transparency and fairness. And of course, the legal framework surrounding agentic AI will need to be addressed with responsible regulations and governance.

The solution for AI companies is being careful and transparent about what data they are using to train their agentic AI products, both for consumer privacy and to better secure data, according to D. Reed Freeman, a privacy and data security attorney who was formerly a staff attorney in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

“We are at the very beginning of a wildly competitive market, and everything counts,” Freeman told MLex. This includes being “transparent with customers about what data they are collecting and how they use it.”

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