Shares of Oracle Corporation (ORCL) ticked higher in Tuesday's premarket trading. The move came as the company unveiled a fresh wave of product announcements centered on artificial intelligence, even as the broader tech sector showed some weakness. It was a bit of a bright spot on a morning where S&P 500 futures were pointing to a mixed open.

So, what's all the fuss about? Oracle is making a big push into what it's calling "agentic" AI. Forget chatbots that just answer questions—think automated systems that can actually execute tasks and workflows. The company is launching Fusion Agentic Applications, describing them as a new class of enterprise software that runs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and is powered by what it calls "industry-leading" large language models (LLMs).

The idea, according to Oracle, is to help organizations "unlock time, capacity, and outcomes that were previously out of reach." It's positioning these tools as a natural extension of its existing Fusion Cloud Applications suite. Specifically, the company said 22 new Fusion Agentic Applications are now available, each targeting specific objectives for leaders in finance, human resources, supply chain management, and customer experience.

But that's not all. Oracle is also expanding the toolkit it gives to developers and partners. The company is adding an "Agentic Applications Builder" and new intelligent workflow tools to its AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications. The goal here is to help customers scale what Oracle terms "outcome-driven AI" and actually measure the value it creates.

Here's a nice bit for customers: Oracle says these new studio tools are available at no additional cost. The company also highlighted its massive partner ecosystem, noting it has over 63,000 certified experts already trained in using the Oracle AI Agent Studio. The updated studio promises added capabilities like orchestration, advanced testing and validation, and built-in security to help users create and manage these AI agents and applications.

Oracle's AI announcements didn't stop at the application layer. The company also rolled out what it calls agentic innovations for its AI Database. This move leans heavily into the critical conversations around security and data governance in the AI era. The core promise of the "Oracle AI Database" update is to "eliminate the need to build and maintain data-movement pipelines"—those complex systems that can introduce security risks and operational headaches.

On the security front, Oracle says its AI Database is engineered to help customers "safeguard data from external attacks, insider misuse, accidental disclosure, and unintended exposure to LLMs." This protection is designed to work across "multicloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments," which is key for large enterprises with complex IT footprints.

From an investor's perspective, the stock currently carries a consensus Buy rating. The average price target among analysts sits at $252.92. Recent analyst activity shows a range of opinions on valuation: Mizuho maintained an Outperform rating but lowered its price target to $320 on March 16, Guggenheim maintained a Buy rating and a $400 target on March 13, and Citigroup maintained a Buy rating while raising its target to $320 on March 12.

For investors looking for ETF exposure to Oracle, the company is a significant holding in several funds. It carries a 7.37% weight in the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV), a 5.44% weight in the First Trust NASDAQ Technology Dividend Index Fund (TDIV), and an 8.13% weight in the Pacer Data and Digital Revolution ETF (TRFK).

In early trading action, Oracle shares were up 0.43% at $155.00, according to market data.