Beware of the Agents!

I would imagine if you’re a SaaS provider with an AI component wrapped into your solution, you’ve probably come up against the objection of ‘we have agents for this’, especially in the enterprise space.

I guess it all comes back to the old build vs buy debate. Just because it’s AI, it’s no different.

It’s a bit like the fad of low-code. I mean how many companies built internal solution on low-code that are still being used today? Low code solutions were supposed to make everything easy, no need for developer teams, business users would just be able to write all the enterprise apps we need.

Maybe it’s because of the AI goldrush that businesses have felt the pressure from execs to implement ‘AI” without really knowing where to use it yet, and they’ve opted for a broad capability play to get started? “I’ll have one hundred AI’s please, so when we need them they’ll be there”.

In my experience as someone who has run businesses, solutions should alleviate specific problems, that’s where the true value is. Turning a broader capability into a highly scalable product, with well-designed workflows, support and maintenance takes a lot of time and relentless focus.

Without focus, your continuous improvement loops won’t be there, you won’t iterate, learn and evolve.

Agents are toolkits, not products.

The additional complexity of successfully integrating any technology into a large or medium corporate environment with all the associated nuance is huge.

Existing tech will have bizarre APIs and custom data structures to consider. Talking of data, having just gone through ISO 27001 certification, have you thought about how you’re handling data retention periods? backups? right to be forgotten?

Then most importantly, people. I know tech is great and all, but behind every great tech offering are great tech people. I know this from my own experience, we’re so passionate about what we do, our focus is on nothing but that day-in, day-out. That’s what you’re getting when you partner with value-add vendors, both the software and the service.