Image: Pexels
Does Your SMB Need to Use Agentic AI?
By Brittany Fugate, Founder
We’ll get right to it: No. Your growing business should probably not jump into agentic AI just yet.
But why not? After all, it seems like so many people are trying out AI agents, and they’ll save you a lot of time, right? We know it’s tempting, but there are several reasons to hold off until we know more about how to effectively use these systems within an SMB.
Reason 1: You might not be set up for success
Simply put, your data, systems and team might not be ready for this kind of effort. Many SMBs don’t even have their feet wet with AI yet, much less are ready for agentic AI. According to BizTech 2026 data, just 9% of SMBs report a successful implementation of AI, and Goldman Sachs reports only 14% of SMBs have fully embedded AI in their core operations. The businesses that haven’t gotten there yet cited challenges like a lack of technical expertise, difficulty choosing tools, and data privacy concerns.
Another big challenge is data readiness. AWS 2026 data shows that data quality is a barrier for 47% of SMBs in AI adoption. Getting data set up to optimize your AI use is a crucial step before you implement AI. You’ve heard the saying, “You have to walk before you can run” — data prep is the crawling stage before AI implementation (walk) and agentic AI (run). A managed services provider like Corporate Technologies can help you prepare data for working with AI.
Reason 2: It’s early
We’re just learning what agentic AI can do, as well as what it should and shouldn’t do. In general, agentic AI can plan and execute tasks on its own, acting on your instructions with tools you give it access to. But Forbes points out that “drift” (an AI agent’s deviation from its original instructions) can cause outcomes you didn’t anticipate.
For instance, you might tell an AI agent to reply to dissatisfied customers with a code for 10% off their next purchase. The agent could over-correct on what qualifies as dissatisfaction in an effort to follow your instructions and start giving out the code to anyone who contacts customer service.
In one prominent real-life example, a Meta AI security researcher watched in horror as her AI agent deleted her entire email inbox after it forgot her original instructions. If an incident like that can happen to someone with so much AI experience and knowledge, what could an agent do to your SMB?
Before you jump in, get familiar with all the potential problems. The Cyber Readiness Institute has a fantastic guide that shares the potential risks of agentic AI, including:
- Data loss and privacy issues
- Operational challenges
- Cybersecurity threats
Reason 3: The potential for cybersecurity issues is too high
You’ve probably trained your team to avoid cybersecurity threats like phishing schemes, but what about AI agents, which can act on their own without a human to stop harmful activity? The Cyber Readiness Institute’s guide points out looming threats like malicious prompt injection and poorly built plugins.
For the sake of cybersecurity, your SMB’s IT staff or managed services provider should be involved in generative AI and agentic AI implementations. Yet AWS shares that 38% of SMBs’ AI budget is governed by department heads, not IT. Without IT involvement to keep cybersecurity risk at bay, individual teams might get in over their heads.
We’ve told you before about shadow AI — AI use by your team that you don’t know about or authorize. It’s the cause of one in six data breaches, according to IBM. Now imagine you aren’t aware of or don’t have control over the agentic AI your team chooses to use — it’s a potential disaster waiting to happen.
The best move is to create an AI use policy that includes language about how to use (or not use) agentic AI so that clear rules are set out for your team. (We can help you create IT policies that are easy to understand to help make sure they’re followed.)
Let Corporate Technologies help you work with AI the right way
AI implementation is complex for any company. And while it has its benefits, it also has risks, and agentic AI presents more still. It’s OK to turn to experts who can help you sort it all out.
Do you want to start implementing AI or AI agents? Let’s talk about it. Corporate Technologies has the experience to help your Kansas City SMB.