- 5 months ago
We are entering a pivotal era in enterprise technology where agentic transformation is redefining how businesses operate—moving beyond traditional digital transformation to AI systems that not only automate tasks but also make autonomous decisions; by 2028, Gartner predicts that 33% of enterprise software will include agentic AI capabilities, enabling 15% of routine decisions to be made without human intervention, and with 70% of organisations in Asia Pacific expecting disruption within 18 months, Malaysia is taking proactive steps through its National Artificial Intelligence Technology Action Plan to ensure AI adoption is not only efficient but also ethical and equitable.
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00:00And we're at a pivotal moment in enterprise technology.
00:03Just a few years ago, digital transformation was the dominant narrative.
00:07Mode, renewing legacy systems, automating workflows and streamlining operations.
00:12But now, a new paradigm is emerging, agentic transformation.
00:16According to GodNow, by 2028, 33% of enterprise software will include agentic AI capabilities.
00:23Up from less than 1% in 2024, that means 15% of routine business decisions could be made autonomously without human intervention.
00:32In Afsiapas, 70% of organizations expect agentic AI to disrupt their business models within the next 18 months.
00:40And here in Malaysia, the government is finalizing the National Artificial Intelligence Technology Action Plan.
00:45Building on the 2021-2025 AI roadmap to ensure AI adoption is not only efficient, but also ethical and equitable.
00:54Joining us this morning is David Ayraki, Chief Technology Officer for Asia, Paris, and Japan, APJ Bumi.
01:00I want to say thank you very much, David, for joining me.
01:02Firstly, let's begin with the big picture.
01:05What exactly is agentic transformation?
01:07And how is it reshaping the way enterprises think about automations, decision-making, and leadership?
01:12So digital transformation was largely about improving efficiency.
01:19So at Bumi, we define agentic transformation as the next chapter in enterprise automation.
01:24So if you think about digital, it built the highways, but agentic AI is the self-driving fleet using them.
01:32And this is because these agents can reason, make decisions, act autonomously, and it's a shift from AI as a tool to a teammate.
01:40So these agentic AIs are adaptable and collaborative, but they require connectivity, clean data, and strong governance.
01:49And that's an area where Bumi excels them in connecting, orchestrating, and managing these intelligent agents.
01:55And as you mentioned, overall, it's to improve efficiency.
01:59And Gartner predicts a sharp rise in agentic AI adoption by 2028.
02:04In Asia Pacific, 70% of organizations expect disruption within 18 months.
02:10What's driving this agency, especially in our region?
02:14There's a wide variety of different use cases.
02:17So for Malaysia particularly, as you mentioned, you have a very strong national AI roadmap.
02:23And with the national AI office, the timing's ideal.
02:25There's a lot of immediate potential in government services and healthcare and education.
02:33So, for example, agents could help automate document reviews in the public sector, or they could potentially personalize learning in schools.
02:42But the key with any of these use cases is to start with well-scoped ideas that lower the risk to the business, but have a high return on investment.
02:54And as Malaysia is finalizing the national AI roadmap, from your perspective, David, how does this align with the broader agentic transformation trend?
03:06It's an interesting question, because if you look not just in Malaysia, but across the ASEAN and AIPAC region globally,
03:14governments and businesses are approaching this topic in a wide variety of different ways.
03:19We have the EU AI Act, as an example, which provides a very formal path and penalties, should data sovereignty and other things not be met.
03:29Whereas for many other countries, it's more around frameworks.
03:33How do we get started with AI and, to your point, do it in a very responsible and ethical way that reduces risk to the business?
03:40And equally, it's not just about governments proposing some of these frameworks, but also higher education and businesses themselves are key actors in this discussion.
03:50And as you mentioned, we're also looking at a very multiple dimension about this, we can see approach from Asia and Asia and even AIPAC.
04:01How can we find, and most of them is, how can we find a better and the best framework that is very suitable with this and in a very ethical way and also reduce the risk of business?
04:11And how is a genetic transformation fundamentally different from digital transformation, especially what new capabilities and challenges does it introduce?
04:22Well, I think one of the big key things in this discussion is trust and trust has to be earned and not assumed.
04:29And the trust comes from transparency, traceability and control, particularly in data.
04:35So where digital transformation is more around automating some of those manual processes within your business,
04:42agentic transformation is more around further automating and having some of those processes be fully self-sufficient.
04:51But without data, you are going to have some problems.
04:56And so inaccurate and inaccessible data erodes that trust and layering AI on top of it only amplifies the problem.
05:04So starting with your data, understanding what liquidity you have, what quality you have, provides you a good foundation to implement AI for your business
05:14and provide further efficiencies and automations in a lot of those digital transformation programs you've already completed.
05:21And putting trust, building trust in agentic AI system to make decisions independently,
05:28what are some of the implications that we cannot see of the astronomy for business operation and leadership accountability?
05:37Yeah, it's interesting because we have this topic of human in the loop as an example,
05:43because with a lot of these processes, you have things like model drift where the AI's answers shift over time
05:51because the data hasn't been updated or it hasn't been trained on new processes or new initiatives.
05:58And so it's not just a technological discussion, but it's also about a leadership discussion.
06:04And leadership's critical here because it's not just an IT initiative.
06:08It's also a very large strategic shift in Boomi.
06:12And as an example here at Boomi, we created a head of enterprise AI role,
06:16and they're meant to align innovation and governance within the business.
06:20And we're seeing that across APJ.
06:22We're seeing companies appoint AI officers or form councils because without oversight,
06:28agents risk bias or flawed decisions.
06:31And it's interesting if I was talking to someone the other day and they liken these new leadership roles,
06:36especially that of a chief AI officer to being the new chief HR officer for AI,
06:42because you wouldn't hire a human without vetting them.
06:45So why are we letting ungoverned AI agents run our workflows?
06:51Definitely, it's not easy as we have to balance all the trust within the system, AI, technology,
06:57and especially when that system adapts poor or insufficient data.
07:04So in this context, agentic AI, what happens to agent AI that acts on poor or biased data?
07:12How can organizations safeguard against this risk, considering that we have to make all of the IT department all aware of this risk,
07:21and then we have to maybe upgrade the system?
07:24So what are the possible scenarios that we are looking at?
07:28Yeah, you've definitely outlined a few of them there.
07:30It's not just a technological shift, it's also a cultural shift in business.
07:36We have a term shadow AI, which we're seeing become more prevalent in the industry today,
07:41because lines of business, users like ourselves, bringing models and agentic AI systems off the shelf into our daily work.
07:49IT may not be across those, so it's getting the skill set and the knowledge across your employee base
07:57to understand what they should be doing with AI and how they should be using it.
08:01But equally on the IT and the technology side, it's putting in those governance capabilities,
08:08so being able to provide explainability and observability to those models that you're using within your organization,
08:13and equally in that layer down, having a look at how you've connected your systems together,
08:20what the quality of that data is, and how you're sharing that data.
08:24And typically that's done via APIs, and APIs are that means for AI agents to securely share information between each other
08:32and connect back into your business.
08:34And definitely everyone, the person who is responsible to overview all of this decision-making anonymously or known,
08:42we're seeing also new executive roles like Chief AI Officer emerge.
08:47What does this tell us about the shift, and what kind of organizational culture and skill sets are needed to support agentic transformation?
08:55How do leaders prepare their teams?
08:58Yeah, definitely. As we talked about, those visionary leaders are treating the shift as a strategic overhaul,
09:05not just a tech refresh, so those leaders are driving that oversight, ensuring that they don't make biased decisions or flawed decisions.
09:16But equally, to your point, across the organization, we have to look at that skills gap,
09:21and we have to understand how do we get our workforce to enable to use AI as part of their day-to-day job,
09:27because it is about AI being that teammate, making you a lot more efficient in your day-to-day role
09:33to enable you to work on higher-value tasks for the business.
09:37And that may come through initiatives within the business themselves,
09:40that may come through higher education, providing courses,
09:44or even through government initiatives to skill up the workforce at a national level.
09:49And David, maybe we can check moving forward, especially for the business.
09:55How can they ensure that agent AI systems remain explainable and auditable,
10:02especially at a scale with the framework that is done or being executed by the government?
10:08Is it enough?
10:11Yeah, I think that's where, when you have those multi-agent ecosystems,
10:14you have to have guardrails across those workflows, not just single models.
10:19Because if you think of use cases such as the patient journey in healthcare,
10:25agentic AI will be embedded to different parts to improve that patient experience
10:30as they enter the hospital or the doctors, you know,
10:34understand what's happened with their x-rays, as an example,
10:37their CT scans to what medication may be assigned to them.
10:41So having agent behavior that's auditable, it's contextual and correctable is going to be key,
10:49especially in industries like healthcare.
10:51If we're talking about retail and, you know,
10:54I'm accidentally suggested or sent the wrong piece of clothing,
10:58that isn't as big of a risk to the business.
11:01And as we know, as many are transitioning to transformation of agent, agent AI,
11:06we hope that all businesses in every category can stay compliant with regulations and ethical standards.
11:14And again, I will say thank you very much to our guest,
11:16David Araki, Chief Technology Officer for Asia Biosphere and Japan APJ,
11:20for helping us understand how can the agent AI and the future of enterprise decision.
11:26And again, definitely all of our discussion here will be featured in astronomy.com
11:30and across all social media platform.
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