How Will Agentic AI Transform Enterprise Software?

TL;DR

Agentic AI can move beyond recommending actions to executing tasks, making adjustments, and operating continuously. Robert Smith argues that businesses must evolve from hosted software toward agentic systems while preserving trusted workflows, cybersecurity, data controls, and enterprise-grade accuracy. He also identifies curiosity, persistence, grit, and confidence built through problem-solving as essential traits for adapting to technological change.

Transcript

People just don't realize how important persistence is. The willingness to never give up and just keep going no matter what the obstacle. That theme comes up over and over again. I don't think there's a replacement for that. But I'm curious, when you look at your success in business and in life, besides your ability to solve problems, what do you t... Read More

Key Insights

• Relentless curiosity is a central trait of successful people because they recognize that they do not always have the answer, ask further questions, gather information, and turn the resulting insights into focused problem-solving energy.
• Grit is the willingness to persist when obstacles, downturns, changing market conditions, or unfamiliar technologies make progress difficult. Easy markets can make everyone appear capable, but difficult conditions reveal who can adapt and continue working toward a solution.
• Confidence is built through repeated problem-solving rather than receiving every answer from someone else. Sports and chess give children opportunities to encounter walls, discover approaches, solve problems, and gradually become more confident in their ability to handle future challenges.
• An evolving institution responds to technological shifts by changing its infrastructure and operating model. Smith describes building a conversion factory for the transition from on-premise software to cloud services, then building another factory to move hosted software toward agentic solutions.
• Agentic AI is distinguished by its ability to take action rather than only identify possibilities. A travel agent can find destinations and activities, make bookings, change arrangements, and adjust plans, demonstrating how modern agents can perform tasks for users.
• Smith's software portfolio includes 89 companies serving 750 million users across 180 countries and 70 industries. He expects each user initially to have two to five agents and eventually 10 to 12, creating an estimated eight to 10 billion agents.
• Enterprise AI requires far greater certainty than casual consumer AI because small errors can have serious operational consequences. Smith contrasts an outdated restaurant result with an incorrect wire transfer, arguing that enterprise agents need trusted workflows, infrastructure, data, protection, and cybersecurity.
• AI can improve enterprise software on both cost and revenue dimensions. Smith reports code generation deployed across all portfolio companies with 40% greater effectiveness, while coordinated agents can also perform customer service and sales work continuously and react quickly to customer changes.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is agentic AI, and how is it different from traditional AI?

Agentic AI is presented as artificial intelligence that performs actions rather than only identifying options or supplying recommendations. A traditional travel system might locate restaurants and museums in Paris, while an agentic system can book them, change arrangements, and adjust the plan. The defining difference is that agents do tasks for users, including work that employees previously handled.

Q: Why is agentic AI important for enterprise software?

Agentic AI can extend enterprise software from systems that store data and manage workflows into systems that actively complete defined tasks. Smith argues that enterprise software already provides trusted infrastructure, workflows, and data, so AI will feed software rather than consume it. Companies can use agents for coding, customer service, sales activities, monitoring changes, and coordinating follow-up work.

Q: How is Robert Smith preparing his software companies for agentic AI?

Smith says his organization is building a factory to convert SaaS or hosted software into agentic solutions, following an earlier factory used to convert on-premise businesses to the cloud. All 89 portfolio companies are pivoting toward the new technology. Some will become agentic, while others will be generative-AI-enabled, with infrastructure and components developed to support the transition.

Q: How many AI agents could be used across Robert Smith's software portfolio?

Smith says the portfolio has 750 million software users across 89 companies, 180 countries, and 70 industries. He expects each user to begin with two to five agents and eventually use 10 to 12. Based on that expansion, he projects a transition from 750 million human users to approximately eight to 10 billion software agents.

Q: Why does enterprise AI need greater accuracy than consumer AI?

Enterprise AI needs greater certainty because its actions can affect sensitive business processes and assets. A consumer restaurant search can tolerate a result for a location that closed three years earlier, but a business cannot accept a wire transfer being sent to the wrong recipient. Enterprise systems therefore require trusted infrastructure, workflows, data, cybersecurity, and protection for each agent.

Q: How can AI improve coding and software development?

AI can improve software development by generating code and increasing the effectiveness of engineering work. Smith says code generation has already been deployed across 100% of his companies and is 40% more effective at the time discussed. He treats this as one example of AI feeding enterprise software, lowering costs while helping software businesses evolve their products and operations.

Q: How can AI agents support customer service and sales teams?

AI agents can monitor information continuously, detect changes, create activities, and coordinate follow-up tasks. Smith describes an orchestration agent working with nine separate agents to perform customer service or sales work around the clock. If a customer's employee changes jobs and posts it on LinkedIn, the agents can detect it immediately and evaluate implications for relevant clients and companies.

Q: What personal qualities help people and businesses adapt to AI?

Curiosity, persistence, grit, and confidence built through problem-solving are presented as essential qualities for adapting to technological change. Curious people admit they lack some answers and continue asking questions. Grit keeps them moving through obstacles and downturns. Organizations also need an ability to evolve, recognize emerging technologies, build supporting infrastructure, and incorporate those technologies into how they operate.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Robert Smith attributes sustained success to relentless curiosity, persistence, and the willingness to keep asking questions when answers are unclear. Curiosity generates information and insights, while grit helps people continue through obstacles, market downturns, and technological disruption. These qualities become especially visible when easy market conditions end and organizations must adapt.

• Confidence and persistence can be developed by helping people discover solutions instead of simply giving them answers. Smith uses sports and chess as examples of activities where children encounter obstacles and practice solving problems. Each successful effort builds confidence, preparing them for difficult journeys rather than removing every difficulty from their path.

• Agentic AI advances beyond systems that merely recommend restaurants, museums, or travel options. Agents can perform tasks, make bookings, adjust plans, generate code, monitor customer changes, and coordinate other agents. Enterprise adoption requires trusted software infrastructure, protected workflows, cybersecurity, dependable data, and substantially greater accuracy than casual consumer applications require.