Bhaskar Roy, Chief of AI Products and Solutions at Workato, breaks down the fundamental shift from app-centric thinking to agent-first architecture. This conversation cuts through the AI hype to reveal how enterprises are moving beyond simple content generation to deploy agents at the core of business processes—from quote-to-cash workflows to IT helpdesk operations. Roy reveals the critical gap between low-agency experimentation and high-value automation, outlines the governance frameworks required for autonomous agents, and explains why getting hands-on is the only way to separate signal from noise in the agentic era.

Key Takeaways

1. The Agency Gap: Most Companies Are Stuck in Low-Value Territory

• Gartner research shows most companies remain in low-agency activities like content creation and email writing, while maximum ROI comes from agents executing core processes like order-to-cash and supply chain management
• SaaS is deterministic and requires months for customization, while agents adapt and execute in real-time
• The transformation eliminates bottlenecks where process experts depend on developers for integrations

2. Purpose-Specific Agents with Enterprise Skills Beat General-Purpose Approaches

• Agents must be narrowly focused with defined skills—finance agents restricted to finance users, each agent limited to relevant capabilities only
• Governance controls agent-to-agent collaboration, with supervisor agents coordinating and ensuring compliance
• Agent authentication ensures agents respect user permissions—only updating data the individual user can access

3. App Events and Enterprise Acumen Enable Proactive Intelligence

• Agents listen to events across systems—new hires, leads, tickets—then reason, contextualize, and take autonomous action
• Enterprise acumen monitors KPIs continuously and proactively recommends actions as metrics fluctuate
• The shift from reactive to proactive requires human-in-the-loop now, but full autonomy approaches rapidly

4. The Mindset Shift: From App-Centric to Agent-First Thinking

• Stop thinking about which app to use—start asking which agent can handle core business processes better
• When agents become core to business, reliability matters—platforms must provide innovation with enterprise-grade trust
• Reading about AI isn't learning—build agents, test them, discover what's real versus hype

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction
00:46 - Journey at Workato: From Integration to Intelligent Agents
03:40 - The Evolution from SaaS to Agentic Workflows
07:51 - Best-of-Breed Apps Creating Data Silos and Integration Challenges
10:54 - Employee Productivity Gains Through Unified Agent Interfaces
13:20 - The Agency Gap: Low-Value vs. Core Business Process Automation
17:32 - Real-World Agent Deployments: Quote-to-Cash and IT Helpdesk
20:12 - Proactive vs. Reactive Agents: Where Does Automation Stop?
24:42 - Trust, Governance, and Control in Autonomous Agent Systems
28:42 - Preparing for the Apps-to-Agents Transition
33:04 - Lightning Round: Getting Hands-On to Shorten Learning Curves

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