Is It Prime Time For Agents In Business?

1
Is It Prime Time For Agents In Business?

• Navi Radjou
• Vice President
• Forrester Research

2
Is There A Business Need For Agents?
Yes!
3
Trading networks risk collapsing under the
disruptive influence of new business drivers

• Accelerated global outsourcing
• Ever-shrinking product lifecycles
• Fickle demand

MORE UNCERTAINTY, VOLATILITY
4
Go beyond efficiency to flexibility
5
Todays enterprise software makes
usinformation-rich but insight-poor!
6
Todays enterprise software suffers from its
centralized architecture
OEMs Planning Department
Customer
Supplier
Contractor
3PL

• Only fit Command Control organizations
• Smart Hub -- Dumb Spokes

7
Todays enterprise software ignores the physical
world
8
To gain flexibility, firms need sense-and-respond
software that facilitates continuous learning
9
One answer? Agent Software

• To mine petabytes of data for insights
• To assist with decision-making
• To coordinate multi-firm processes
• To improve learning

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Agents Will Become Ubiquitous But Who Cares?

• Agent-based BPM tools
• Predictive CRM software
• Adaptive supply chain apps
• Shop-floor automation tools

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Businesses Will Embrace Agent Technology In
Stages To Tweak Their Processes
2009
Decentralized decision-making
Agent-optimized
Use agents to automate
decisions and run mission-
critical operations
2006-8
Agent-managed
Use agents to
coordinate activities
with trading partners
2003-5

Agent-monitored
Use agents to sense
and interpret
environmental data
Traditional businessprocesses
Centralized decision-making
Low-exposure
High-exposure
To variability
To variability
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Agent-Based Technology Evolution
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Thank you
Navi Radjou 1 617/613-6119 nradjou_at_forrester.com
www.forrester.com