In a new episode of the BBC's Tech Life podcast, presenter Chris Vallance and producer Tom Quinn turn their attention to agentic AI – systems designed to carry out tasks autonomously on behalf of their users. The programme asks what these agents are capable of, and what the public needs to know about a technology that is increasingly in the news.
To help answer those questions, Vallance speaks to an expert. But the podcast does not limit itself to the capabilities and risks of autonomous AI. It also investigates whether AI can improve the process of recruiting employees – a sector where machine learning tools are already being used to screen candidates and predict job fit.
“BBC Tech Life explores agentic AI, recruitment AI, and a limb loss representation campaign.”
A third segment of the episode focuses on a campaign to teach AI how to represent people with limb loss. The initiative aims to ensure that machine learning models understand and accurately depict individuals with amputations, addressing a gap in current training data that often overlooks diverse bodies.
The episode, broadcast on 28 July 2026 and running for 26 minutes, is available on BBC Sounds for over a year.
As agentic AI moves from laboratories into everyday applications, the Tech Life episode offers a timely snapshot of the debates and developments that will shape how we interact with autonomous systems – from the workplace to the way technology sees us.