Workshop at ACS 2026 · October 6, 2026

OntoAgentic AI

Symbolic Orchestration of Agentic and Robotic Systems

13th Annual Conference on Advances in Cognitive Systems University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

  • DateOctober 6, 2026
  • VenueUniversity of Edinburgh
  • Format2-page extended abstracts

Workshop Description

A symbolic architecture in the orchestrating role

Most current agentic and neurosymbolic systems are effectively based on generative AI and typically use symbolic, knowledge-based AI in supporting roles. This workshop explores the alternative paradigm in which a symbolic cognitive architecture has the orchestrating role, while neural models are invoked as tools for the subtasks they perform best.

We call this stance OntoAgentic AI: agentic AI orchestrated by symbolic, knowledge-based systems and neurosymbolic AI which is symbolic-neural rather than neural-symbolic.

The name designates a field, not a system: “onto-” signals agency grounded in explicit, inspectable models of the world and of the agent's own knowledge, whatever form those models take in a given architecture. A central goal of the workshop is community building — to make this shared commitment explicit, examine where approaches converge and diverge, and begin coordinating a research agenda for the field. A featured application area is cognitive robotics, where the requirements of trust, verifiability, and explanation are non‑negotiable.

Diagram of OntoAgentic AI: AI agents, neural models, and tools feed into a symbolic cognitive architecture, which coordinates goals, planning, reasoning, and memory, all grounded in a world model and ontology.