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ZDNET Highlights
- Agents will enable our systems and complete our tasks.
- AI will consume traditional software applications.
- Business leaders must focus on integration and governance.
If you think AI is already having a big impact on the workplace, think again. If Boomi CEO Steve Lucas’s prediction is correct, the applications we use to get our work done will disappear in the next few years, as AI agents not only help us complete tasks but also enable the tools we need to do our work.
“In the not-too-distant future, things that we think of as separate software categories will be consumed by AI and gone,” Lucas told ZDNET in a one-on-one conversation at the technology expert’s recent Boomi World Tour event in London.
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He envisioned a situation where the applications we know and use today would soon exist as a logical construct within AI. Employees will use the Lucas AI “experience layer” to communicate verbally, visually and audibly with traditional systems of record.
So, how will we transition from our traditional way of working to an AI-enabled enterprise over the next few years? Lucas outlined three ways agents will shape the workplace of the future.
1. Billions of agents will exist
Lucas suggested that enterprises would evolve like self-driving cars. What once appeared to be a revolutionary, far-reaching vision will appear to be an increasingly automated and standardized reality.
“When you first sat in a Tesla, and you tried self-driving, it was nothing more than cruise control, just a little more advanced — stop and go into traffic,” he said.
“But self-driving technology has evolved. Over time, the technology has recognized stop lights, stop signs, and can stop you. You sit in Waymo in San Francisco, and the level of self-driving achieved is amazing. So, enterprises will also become more self-driving.”
Lucas said AI agents are the magical ingredient that will allow companies to transition to automated enterprises.
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He had earlier suggested this in May 2024 thousands of agents Will be activated inside businesses within two years. 18 months later Lucas is even more blunt: “These things will be worth billions, maybe trillions.”
He gave an example of how AI agents can help ensure data quality, an area of work that is often enabled by his company’s technology.
“In 30 seconds, I can create an AI agent that qualifies addresses, looks at addresses with postal codes, and cleans those addresses before they get to Boomi,” he said.
“Now, I realize that data quality is more sophisticated than that example. But I present that use case as a humble example of, ‘If I can use AI to create an agent in 30 seconds, do I need data quality tooling, or do I already have it as part of a broader platform?’”
2. Software will be consumed by AI
Lucas then offered what he said as a bonus comment: “I think there’s a lot of technology today, and it may be not two years, but three years, that will only exist as a logical construct within AI.”
Just as AI agents can help professionals manage data quality concerns, they can also take on other responsibilities. Lucas said the impact of this change on the software industry and the professionals who complete work using these tools will be huge.
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Lucas reflected on the rapid pace of change already taking place since ChatGPT’s launch three years ago, suggesting that the AI-enabled changes we’ve already seen in the workplace could help us understand what might seem like a revolutionary proposition.
He said, “We are living in an alternate universe where science fiction is now science fact.” “Think about it for a minute: What would it be like if AI was powerful enough, and I said to the AI, ‘I’m a small business, act as my CRM.’ Is it really a big deal to be able to do this?”
Like the previous data quality example, Lucas acknowledged that this transition will have complexity and nuance. However, the premise is the same: change is coming fast.
“The consumer experience I have on my phone is that I just talk to ChatGPT, I’ll have that conversation with an agent in the enterprise, and I’ll say, ‘Look, if I’ve got any expense reports, just approve them,'” he said.
“And I might not even need to say that. The agent might say to me, ‘I’ve already taken care of that work. I’ve approved your expense report. I checked Bob’s calendar, and he was on his report with those three clients. So, you’re all good.'”
3. System logins will disappear
Lucas said that as agents automate the applications and activities associated with the modern workplace, the need to interact with traditional systems, the mainstay of the enterprise IT ecosystem, will begin to disappear.
He said, “The reality is that two years from now, I will never log into another system.” “AI will just be the experience layer that we have verbally, visually and audibly. That’s what’s going to happen.”
Big-ticket systems like Salesforce, Workday, and SAP will become systems of record, almost the equivalent of mainframes in the modern era: “They’re in the background, very important, doing things, but we’ll never interact with them.”
Lucas suggested that this high-level automated experience would rely on an activation layer between the conversation interface and the systems of record.
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He said this layer will deal with integration and governance concerns, which have become more prominent as MIT research demonstrated that 95% of enterprises attempting to use AI do not see measurable results in revenue or growth.
The activation layer will help digital and business leaders address the challenges of delivering returns from AI projects by Lucas, integrating with existing applications and data, and embedding emerging technologies into existing workflows and processes.
“Companies that want to be successful with AI will have their own model or models of choice. They will have their own agentic development platform, whether they use Boomi from Amazon, Bedrock or something from ServiceNow,” he said.
“However, they must have the data, applications, and workflow glue, and this will be known as the AI activation layer. It’s coming. I see it from 1,000 miles away.”
