The call to move faster may seem tone deaf as CEOs and their senior teams struggle to see bottom-line value from early gen AI investments. Developing and scaling gen AI use cases have proven frustratingly challenging. Some executives remain unconvinced that AI agents will have a significant impact—at least in the short term—and have stepped back from their investments.1 As CEOs navigate the uncertainty, it is worth acknowledging both the pace and potential scope of the change that is happening. AI agents—software systems built with gen AI that have the ability to plan, act, remember, and learn to achieve predefined outcomes autonomously—are evolving quickly and, as they mature, could completely change how companies are run and how they generate value.
