Name & Title:
- P. Colin Manikoth, Assistant Professor
Organization:
- Department of Design, Eastern Washington University
Area of World:
- Spokane, WA, USA (PST)
Language:
- English
Target Audience:
- Anyone utilizing AI tooling
Short Session Description (one line):
Forget chatbots. A new category of AI that runs in the background working on your behalf. Everyone can have a personal admin assistant, except this one never sleeps.
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
Please see below
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:
https://openclaw.ai/
AI that Acts on Your Behalf
Imagine that running while you sleep. Forget AI as a tool. Think of it as your own personal admin assistant.
Most AI today waits for you. You ask a question. It answers. That's a chatbot. Useful, but limited. Agentic AI is different. It doesn't wait. It runs on your computer, works on your behalf, and acts on its own. It plans. It adapts. When something goes wrong, it figures out a workaround — without you stepping in.
This is a rapidly emerging category in 2026. The breakout example right now is OpenClaw. It's a free, open-source AI agent that lives on your machine and connects to the apps you already use — your browser, your files, your messaging. You give it a goal, and it figures out the steps. It went from a weekend side project in late 2025 to over 250,000 GitHub stars in under four months. Recently, OpenAI hired its creator. It's the fastest-adopted open-source project anyone has seen.
It also scared the hell out of security professionals. And that tension — massive potential, real risk — defines where we are right now.
Full agentic AI can perceive what's happening, reason through what to do next, pick its own tools, and take action — all semi- or fully autonomously. It doesn't just follow a script. It makes decisions in real time.
The potential is massive. So are the fears.
For Librarians, here are examples of what a fully automated Agentic AI system could.
Reference and Research
- Auto-compile reading lists based on a patron's stated interests
- Track interlibrary loan status and proactively notify patrons
Collection Management
- Monitor publisher announcements and new releases in collection focus areas
- Cross-reference usage stats with subscription costs and surface underused resources
Programming and Events
- Monitor room booking calendars and send setup reminders to staff
- Create event descriptions and setup the events relevant to your community
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