The rise of agent washing shows why AI fluency matters at the leadership level. As AI becomes more entrenched in enterprise operations, a wave of marketing jargon is making it increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction. The term ”agent washing” has emerged to describe the growing practice where vendors label simple automation or scripted workflows as AI agents. This trend presents a real challenge for decision-makers and technology leaders: How can they distinguish genuine agentic intelligence from glorified macros? And what does innovation in this space look like in practical terms? Planning for authentic agentic systems requires understanding four themes: the rise of agent washing, defining features of real AI agents, frameworks for evaluating these systems within business contexts and the risks and rewards involved in their responsible deployment. Together, these themes serve as a guide through the evolving and complex technological landscape. Much like greenwashing in environmental marketing, agent washing is a tactic designed to capitalize on current AI trends by falsely claiming intelligence where none exists. “Agent washing slaps an ‘AI agent’ label onto solutions that are little more than glorified scripts,” said Nimisha Mehta, senior software engineer at Confluent. This practice not only misleads buyers but also threatens to stall genuine progress by creating confusion among users. “Sometimes companies employ AI solely for PR and marketing purposes, which is misguided and potentially harmful to long-term strategic goals,” said Ilia Badeev, head of data science at Trevolution Group. The fear of missing out leads executives to adopt AI tools prematurely or superficially, sacrificing strategic coherence for short-term visibility. Continue reading here.