Summary
The article argues that many organizations are failing in the 'agentic AI race' not due to a lack of ambition, but because they are simultaneously battling three crises: achieving sustainable velocity, managing fragmentation and associated costs, and mitigating 'shadow AI' security risks. These issues are often tackled in isolation, leading to fragmented solutions that exacerbate the problems. The author proposes 'AI connectivity' as a unified platform approach to address speed, cost, and governance holistically, enabling organizations to deploy AI with confidence, invest with clarity, monetize their builds, gain full visibility, and move faster over time. This integrated strategy, exemplified by platforms like Kong, is presented as crucial for success in the agentic AI era, warning that organizations failing to adopt such a unified approach risk falling behind.
Why It Matters
A technical IT operations leader should read this article because it highlights critical infrastructure challenges that directly impact the success and sustainability of AI initiatives. It moves beyond the hype of AI development to focus on the operational realities of deploying and managing AI at enterprise scale. Understanding the 'three crises' (velocity, fragmentation/cost, and shadow AI) and the proposed 'AI connectivity' solution will equip leaders to proactively design robust, secure, and cost-effective AI infrastructure. This perspective is vital for preventing project cancellations, optimizing resource allocation, ensuring compliance, and ultimately positioning their organization to be among the 60% of successful AI projects, rather than the 40% predicted to fail.
