From Driveways to Highways: Why Media Companies Need Agentic AI, Not Just AI Agents

2025 was the year AI went from novelty to necessity. Investment surged, adoption accelerated, and nearly every business conversation shifted from if to how AI would be embedded into day-to-day work. As a result, one term started showing up everywhere: AI agents.

But as we look ahead to 2026, many media companies are discovering that agents alone aren’t enough. The problem isn’t capability, it’s context. And that’s where the confusion between AI agents and agentic AI begins.

Driveways vs. Highways: A Useful Way to Think About AI

AI agents are like driveways.
Agentic AI workflows are like highways.

Both move things forward.
But they are built for very different purposes.

A driveway is great for getting a car from the street to your house. It’s direct, efficient, and purpose-built. But you wouldn’t try to run a city on driveways alone.

Highways, on the other hand, are designed for scale, coordination, and shared flow. They connect many destinations, support different types of traffic, and allow humans to remain in control, deciding where to go, when to exit, and how fast to move.

This is the difference between fully autonomous agents and human-in-the-loop agentic AI.

AI Agents: Efficient, Autonomous Driveways

AI agents are designed to operate independently within a narrow scope. Once given a task, they can execute it without much human involvement.

In media workflows, agents might:

• Generate a report
• Pull performance metrics
• Execute predefined optimizations
  

They’re fast. They’re useful. And they remove friction from repetitive work.

But like driveways, they’re point solutions. Each agent handles a specific task, in isolation, with limited awareness of broader goals or downstream impact. When conditions change — strategy shifts, audience behavior evolves, or priorities conflict — agents don’t adapt unless someone reprograms or re-prompts them.

Driveways are great. They just don’t connect the whole system.

Agentic AI: Highways Built for Human Direction

Agentic AI prioritizes designing systems where humans and AI operate together at scale.

In this model:

• Humans set goals, constraints, and strategy
• AI systems plan, reason, and recommend actions
• Feedback loops continuously refine decisions
• Autonomy exists within guardrails, not outside them

This is the highway.

Agentic AI workflows connect data, tools, teams, and decisions across the organization. They allow AI to operate proactively — identifying opportunities, flagging risks, and suggesting next steps — while keeping humans in control of direction and judgment.

Instead of asking:

“What task should this agent do?”

Agentic AI asks:

“What outcome are we trying to achieve, and how do we get there?”

Why Fully Autonomous Agents Break Down in Media

Media companies don’t operate in static environments. Campaigns evolve mid-flight. Audiences behave unpredictably. Creative and performance are deeply intertwined.

Fully autonomous agents struggle here because:

• They lack cross-context awareness
• They optimize locally, not holistically
• They don’t understand business tradeoffs
• They can’t collaborate across teams or workflows

The result is automation without alignment; fast execution that doesn’t always move the business forward.

Highways solve this problem by enabling orchestration rather than isolated action.

Human-in-the-Loop Isn’t a Limitation 

There’s a misconception that more autonomy always means better AI. In reality, the most effective systems are the ones that prioritize humans.

Agentic AI workflows are designed to:

• Escalate decisions when judgment matters
• Adapt recommendations based on human feedback
• Balance speed with accountability
• Preserve creativity, expertise, and intuition

This is especially critical in media, where context, brand nuance, and strategic intent can’t be fully automated — and shouldn’t be.

What Media Companies Should Prioritize for 2026

If you’re evaluating AI today, the question isn’t whether to use agents; it’s whether you’re building infrastructure or just adding shortcuts.

Ask:

• Does this AI connect workflows or just automate tasks?
• Can it adapt as goals change
• Does it support human decision-making at scale?
• Will it grow with the business, or require constant rewiring?

Agents will always have a role. But without agentic AI, they remain disconnected driveways, efficient, but limited.

Curious how this approach works in practice? Learn how Horizon Media uses Akkio to make faster decisions and improve media outcomes.

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