Deloitte Urges Agent-First Enterprise Redesign Over AI Pilots
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Deloitte Microsoft Technology Practice is advocating an "agent-first" enterprise model, arguing AI agents should execute entire workflows autonomously while humans set goals, define policy constraints, and handle exceptions.
- Scott Rodgers, global chief architect and U.S. CTO of the practice, said companies must "shift the operating model to humans as governors and agents as operators" rather than bolting agents onto fragmented legacy workflows.
- Technology budgets for AI are expected to increase more than 70% over the next two years, with Rodgers warning that static task-automation approaches will produce only incremental gains.
- Rodgers said many organizations lack visibility into their full economic drivers—such as cost to serve and per-transaction costs—leading them to chase flashy pilots instead of agents that create the most structural value.
- The competitive warning from Rodgers: "The real risk isn't that AI won't work—it's that competitors will redesign their operating models while you're still piloting agents and copilots."
Why it matters: With AI technology budgets projected to rise over 70% in two years, companies that layer agents onto legacy processes could waste the spending surge on incremental gains. Rodgers argues nonlinear performance improvements only come from end-to-end process redesign with machine-readable definitions, explicit policy constraints, and human governance built in from the start.
Ask SkimNews
