What are agentic apps?
From the outside, an agentic app looks like any other tool: a list, a few filters, some buttons. The difference is what happens behind them. An agent has already gathered the data, worked through the options, and prepared a recommendation, so the person's job is to review and decide.
That's different from a chatbot, where the user has to know what to ask, and from background automation, which runs without anyone seeing it. An agentic app puts the AI's work in front of the people who need it, in a form they can use.
How do you turn an AI prompt into an app?
Agentic apps are usually the last step on a ladder, where each step reuses the one before.
| Step | What it is | When to move up |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt | A request that gets a useful result from an AI model | When it works and others need it |
| Skill | A packaged, reusable prompt or automation | When several skills need to run together or on a schedule |
| Workflow | Skills chained into an automation that runs on its own | When people need to see, adjust, or act on the results |
| App | A workflow wrapped in a real interface | When it's ready to share widely |
What is an example of an agentic app?
A brand-safety review
A media team needs to review thousands of video channels before a campaign. An agentic app scores each channel, adds an AI recommendation, and shows the results in a list.
A reviewer scans the recommendations and clicks include or exclude. The agent did the research. The person made the call.
Agentic apps vs. chatbots vs. background automation
| Chatbot | Background automation | Agentic app | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How people use it | Type a question | They don't. It runs unseen | Open an interface and review results |
| Multi-step work | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Human decisions | Up to the user to ask | Usually none | Built into the interface |
| Who can use it | People who know what to ask | The person who built it | Anyone it's shared with |
Why do agentic apps matter?
Many of the best AI wins stay with the person who built them, as a prompt or a script nobody else can run. Agentic apps turn individual wins into shared tools, without an engineering cycle for every idea.
- Less duplicate work. Teams use one proven tool instead of building their own.
- AI for people who don't prompt. A real interface replaces the blank chat box.
- Humans in the loop. Reviews and approvals are part of the app.
- Governance at scale. Verification, reviews, and access control mean more builders don't have to mean more risk.
How does Alli do this?
Alli by PMG's Apps is the governed AI app builder in Alli. Teams describe an app in Alli4u, which builds it from existing prompts, skills, and workflows, then deploy it to Alli Apps, where every app goes through code verification and review and keeps an audit trail.
Access is governed, so each app is available only to the teams it's shared with, and the Apps library lets people search, filter, and find proven tools before building new ones. Alli MCP Server gives every step governed access to data and systems.
Explore Alli AppsAgentic apps FAQ
What is an agentic application?
An agentic application is software with an AI agent inside that does multi-step work for the user, behind a normal interface where people review results and make decisions.
How is an agentic app different from a chatbot?
A chatbot waits for the user to ask the right question. An agentic app presents the agent's work in an interface designed for a specific job, with buttons and reviews instead of a blank prompt.
Do you need developers to build agentic apps?
Not always. Some platforms build apps from a plain-language description and existing workflows. Developers can still add custom logic.
When should a workflow become an app?
When other people keep asking you to run it, when its output needs a human decision, or when several teams have built their own version of the same tool.
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