Agentic artificial intelligence (AI), which can operate autonomously with minimal human oversight, is reshaping the landscape of global security and competitiveness. Unlike existing AI systems that respond to prompts, agentic AI can independently set goals, create plans, and execute multi-step tasks, according to experts at the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan initiative focused on strengthening America's long-term AI competitiveness.
Ylli Bajraktari, president of SCSP, warned in a recent newsletter that a self-accelerating loop in which AI improves itself could push capability development far beyond current projections. He highlighted the threat of agentic AI systems that can navigate complex bureaucracies, identify vulnerabilities, and act without leaving a clear trail, representing a qualitative expansion of adversarial capability. In terms of global security, Bajraktari emphasized that adversaries will deploy agentic AI in areas where governance is weakest, using it for coercion, espionage, and influence.
Effective governance of agentic AI, as SCSP experts explain, does not focus on the AI model itself but on the scaffolding built around it. This scaffolding includes connectors to bridge the model to real-world infrastructure like email and financial platforms, memory for learning across interactions, planning capabilities to break objectives into tasks, permission structures defining access, and guardrails determining what the system will refuse to do, such as spending limits or human sign-offs.
Accountability remains a major challenge, with governance falling short in three key ways: responsibility is untraceable when using AI, current frameworks do not assess whether tasks were performed safely, and agentic AI builds personal profiles that may accumulate sensitive data without user consent. Despite these challenges, SCSP experts stress that agentic AI is not to be feared. Institutions that prioritize understanding and governing agentic AI will determine their competitive position and shape the global environment in which it operates.
