Agentic AI in the Enterprise 2026

Description

Agentic AI is reshaping enterprise software faster than most CIOs, CFOs, and vendors are prepared for. Praveen Akkiraju, Managing Director at Insight Partners, joins Michael Krigsman to examine the state of agentic AI in 2026: what works in production, what remains hype, and how sophisticated enterprises are now running more than 1,000 agents at scale. The conversation covers the engineering that separates reliable agents from unreliable ones, the economics of token consumption, and the build-vs-buy calculus facing enterprise buyers. YOU'LL DISCOVER ✅ Why Praveen argues "the agent is actually the harness," and what a harness includes: tools, context, memory, and guardrails ✅ "Jagged intelligence": why state-of-the-art models still fail on basic prompt variations, and the implications for production deployment ✅ How leading enterprises are operating 1,000+ agents and the governance questions that remain unresolved ✅ A bounded vs. unbounded framework for deciding where agent autonomy is realistic and where human approval must stay ✅ Why "token maxing" is consuming annual AI budgets in 90 days, and what CIOs can do about it ✅ How Stampli inserts agentic steps into invoice reconciliation rather than rebuilding the workflow from scratch ✅ Build vs. buy: why front-end workflows favor buying and back-end, data-heavy workflows favor building ✅ The fractional-FTE pricing model emerging for agentic products, and what it means for software economics ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Token maxing and the enterprise AI budget problem 0:23 Model evolution: reasoning, DeepSeek, and the agentic inflection 2:03 What is an agent: models plus harness 4:46 Hype versus reality in agentic AI 8:31 Where agents deliver measurable value today 13:10 Agent negligence, guardrails, and sandboxes 16:06 Data access boundaries: APIs, MCP, and policy files 20:38 Bolt-on agents versus agent-native software 26:53 Human in the loop or autonomous: the operating model question 33:49 Fix your data first, or start now? 41:54 Will agents replace Salesforce and Workday? 47:28 Build vs. buy: front end versus back end 50:45 Token costs and the return of variable-cost software 54:09 Pricing agents as fractional FTEs 🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations with the world's top business and technology leaders. 📩 Get the CXOTalk newsletter: https://newsletter.cxotalk.com 💬 Where in your organization would you trust an agent to act without human approval, and what would have to be true for you to move that line? 🎙️ ABOUT CXOTALK CXOTalk features unfiltered conversations with C-suite executives from major companies about AI, digital transformation, and business strategy. Hosted by Michael Krigsman. Episode 916 | Recorded April 2026 #CXOTalk #AgenticAI #EnterpriseAI #AIAgents #AIGovernance #CIOStrategy #InsightPartners #EnterpriseSoftware #DigitalTransformation #LLM