In the past few years, I have been working with various enterprises on introducing AI into daily business and operations. In many of these cases, the initial goal was to implement a single “point solution” — an AI tool to automate a specific process or support a defined task. Yet I have always advocated a broader, enterprise-level approach. AI is not just another IT tool; it is a transformative capability that, if introduced thoughtfully and step by step, can reshape how a business operates and creates value.
Now, as agentic AI takes center stage and generates even more excitement than AI itself, my message remains the same: take a holistic view. Do not get deterred by the technical and organizational complexity of building and deploying agents, but also don’t treat it as a simple IT project — as some consultants with a purely technical background tend to suggest.
The recent McKinsey article, “The Change Agent: Goals, Decisions, and Implications for CEOs in the Agentic Age,” offers a great perspective for executives on how to think about agents and their enterprise-level integration. A few key insights stand out:
- Agents are not “co-workers” but software systems capable of executing increasingly complex tasks.
- They can augment our work or, in some cases, take over specific functions entirely.
- Scaling agentic systems across an enterprise is a multi-year journey.
- Without proper management and observability platforms, organizations risk an uncontrolled “agent sprawl.”
- Ultimately, employees are evolving into agent team leaders — guiding and supervising AI-driven processes.
As organizations enter the agentic age, success will not come from experimenting with isolated tools, but from building the strategic, technical, and human foundations for a truly AI-empowered enterprise.