提出智能体系统技术债新概念,揭示其动态演化机制。
From AI Technical Debt to Agentic Technical Debt: A Systematic Mapping of Root Causes and Manifestations in Agentic AI Systems

- 从传统技术债出发,重构智能体系统的债务表现形式
- 发现记忆不一致、编排脆弱性等新型系统级负债
- 为可信自治系统提供可管理的债务治理框架
智能体式AI系统以自主推理、多智能体协作、工具编排、自适应决策和持久记忆为特征,标志着从传统静态AI流水线向动态软件生态系统的根本转变。现有AI技术债(AITD)模型基于静态组件架构,无法捕捉智能体环境中的动态与涌现行为。本文首次提出智能体技术债(AgTD),指因智能体的自主性与协作性而产生、累积、传播并放大的技术债。在前期对31种传统AITD的系统性综述基础上,采用理论驱动的转化方法,通过直接转化、情境转化和表现扩展,将既有债务映射至智能体场景,揭示其演化为系统级风险的过程:包括记忆不一致、编排脆弱性、级联失效及危险自主决策。研究发现,技术债已从软件构件延伸至智能体行为、协调机制及与工具、执行环境的交互中。进一步探讨其对人工智能可信、风险与安全管理体系(AI TRiSM)的影响,涉及可信度、治理、安全性、运营韧性及可持续性技术债。本研究确立了AgTD作为基础软件工程概念的地位,提出转化框架、分类体系与研究议程,为自主多智能体系统的债务管理提供理论支持。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
The emergence of Agentic AI systems, characterized by autonomous reasoning, multi-agent collaboration, tool orchestration, adaptive decision-making, and persistent memory, represents a fundamental shift from traditional AI pipelines to dynamic software ecosystems. While AI Technical Debt (AITD) has been widely studied in machine learning and software engineering, existing models assume static, component-level architectures and fail to capture the dynamic and emergent behaviors of agentic environments. To address this gap, this paper introduces Agentic Technical Debt (AgTD), defined as technical debt that emerges, accumulates, propagates, and amplifies due to the autonomous and collaborative nature of Agentic AI systems. Building on our prior systematic scoping review of 31 AITDs across seven root-cause categories, we employ a theory-informed transformation methodology to reinterpret these debts in Agentic AI through direct transformation, contextual transformation, and manifestation expansion. We present the first systematic mapping of established AITDs to their agentic manifestations, showing how conventional debts evolve into system-level liabilities, including memory inconsistencies, orchestration fragility, cascading failures, and unsafe autonomous decision-making. Our findings show that technical debt extends beyond software artifacts to encompass agent behaviors, coordination mechanisms, and interactions among agents, tools, and execution environments. We further examine its implications for AI Trust, Risk, and Security Management (AI TRiSM), highlighting impacts on trustworthiness, governance, security, operational resilience, and Sustainability Technical Debt. Overall, this work establishes AgTD as a foundational software engineering construct and provides a transformation framework, taxonomy, and research agenda for managing technical debt in autonomous multi-agent AI systems.
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