Need smarter insights in your inbox? Join our weekly newsletters to get solely what issues to enterprise AI, information, and safety leaders. Subscribe Now
The chatter round synthetic common intelligence (AGI) could dominate headlines coming from Silicon Valley corporations like Openai, Meta and Xaihowever for enterprise leaders on the bottom, the main focus is squarely on sensible functions and measurable outcomes. At VentureBeat’s current Rework 2025 occasion in San Francisco, a transparent image emerged: the period of actual, deployed agentic AI is right here, is accelerating and it’s already reshaping how companies function.
Corporations like Intuit, Capital One, LinkedIn, Stanford College and Highmark Well being are quietly placing AI brokers into manufacturing, tackling concrete issues, and seeing tangible returns. Listed below are the 4 greatest takeaways from the occasion for technical decision-makers.
1. AI Brokers are shifting into manufacturing, sooner than anybody realized
Enterprises at the moment are deploying AI brokers in customer-facing functions, and the development is accelerating at a breakneck tempo. A current VentureBeat survey of two,000 trade professionals performed simply earlier than VB Rework revealed that 68% of enterprise corporations (with 1,000+ staff) had already adopted agentic AI – a determine that appeared excessive on the time. (Actually, I anxious it was too excessive to be credible, so after I introduced the survey outcomes on the occasion stage, I cautioned that the excessive adoption could also be a mirrored image of VentureBeat’s particular readership.)
Nonetheless, new information validates this fast shift. A KPMG survey launched on June 26, a day after our occasion, exhibits that 33% of organizations at the moment are deploying AI brokers, a stunning threefold enhance from simply 11% within the earlier two quarters. This market shift validates the development VentureBeat first recognized simply weeks in the past in its pre-Rework survey.
This acceleration is being fueled by tangible outcomes. Ashan Willy, CEO of New Relicfamous a staggering 30% quarter over quarter development in monitoring AI functions by its prospects, primarily due to the its prospects’ transfer to undertake brokers. Corporations are deploying AI brokers to assist prospects automate workflows they need assistance with. Intuit, as an illustration, has deployed bill era and reminder brokers in its QuickBooks software program. The end result? Companies utilizing the characteristic are getting paid 5 days sooner and are 10% extra prone to be paid in full.
Even non-developers are feeling the shift. Scott White, the product lead of Anthropic’s Claude AI product, described how he, regardless of not being knowledgeable programmer, is now constructing production-ready software program options himself. “This wasn’t attainable six months in the past,” he defined, highlighting the facility of instruments like Claude Code. Equally, OpenAI’s head of product for its API platform, Olivier Godement, detailed how prospects like Stripe and Field are utilizing its Brokers SDK to construct out multi-agent techniques.
2. The hyperscaler race has no clear winner as multi-cloud, multi-model reigns
The times of betting on a single massive language mannequin (LLM) supplier are over. A constant theme all through Rework 2025 was the transfer in the direction of a multi-model and multi-cloud technique. Enterprises need the flexibleness to decide on the perfect device for the job, whether or not it’s a strong proprietary mannequin or a fine-tuned open-source different.
As Armand Ruiz, VP of AI Platform at IBM defined, the corporate’s improvement of a mannequin gateway — which routes functions to make use of no matter LLM is best and performant for the particular case –was a direct response to buyer demand. IBM began by providing enterprise prospects its personal open-source fashions, then added open-source assist, and at last realized it wanted to assist all fashions. This need for flexibility was echoed by XD Huang, the CTO of Zoom, who described his firm’s three-tiered mannequin method: supporting proprietary fashions, providing their very own fine-tuned mannequin and permitting prospects to create their very own fine-tuned variations.
This development is creating a strong however constrained ecosystem, the place GPUs and the facility wanted to generate tokens are in restricted provide. As Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis and fellow panelists Jonathan Ross of Groq and Sean Lie of Cerebras identified, this places stress on the profitability of a whole lot of corporations that merely purchase extra tokens when they’re accessible, as a substitute of locking into income as the price of these tokens continues to fall. Enterprises are getting smarter about how they use totally different fashions for various duties to optimize for each price and efficiency — and that will usually imply not simply counting on Nvidia chips, however being way more personalized — one thing additionally echoed in a VB Rework session led by Solidigm across the emergence of personalized reminiscence and storage options for AI.
3. Enterprises are centered on fixing actual issues, not chasing AGI
Whereas tech leaders like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman are speaking concerning the daybreak of superintelligence, enterprise practitioners are rolling up their sleeves and fixing quick enterprise challenges. The conversations at Rework have been refreshingly grounded in actuality.
Take Highmark Well being, the nation’s third-largest built-in medical insurance and supplier firm. Its Chief Information Officer Richard Clarke stated it’s utilizing LLMs for sensible functions like multilingual communication to higher serve their numerous buyer base, and streamlining medical claims. In different phrases, leveraging know-how to ship higher companies at the moment. Equally, Capital One is constructing groups of brokers that mirror the features of the corporate, with particular brokers for duties like threat analysis and auditing, together with serving to their automotive dealership shoppers join prospects with the correct loans.
The journey trade can be seeing a practical shift. CTOs from Expedia and Kayak mentioned how they’re adapting to new search paradigms enabled by LLMs. Customers can now seek for a resort with an “infinity pool” on ChatGPT, and journey platforms want to include that degree of pure language discovery to remain aggressive. The main target is on the shopper, not the know-how for its personal sake.
4. The way forward for AI groups is small, nimble, and empowered
The age of AI brokers can be reworking how groups are structured. The consensus is that small, agile “squads” of three to 4 engineers are only. Varun Mohan, CEO of Windsurf, a fast-growing agentic IDE, kicked off the occasion by arguing that this small crew construction permits for fast testing of product hypotheses and avoids the slowdown that plagues bigger teams.
This shift implies that “everyone seems to be a builder,” and more and more, “everyone seems to be a supervisor” of AI brokers. As GitHub and Atlassian famous, engineers at the moment are studying to handle fleets of brokers. The talents required are evolving, with a better emphasis on clear communication and strategic considering to information these autonomous techniques.
This nimbleness is supported by a rising acceptance of sandboxed improvement. Andrew Ng, a number one voice in AI, suggested attendees to depart security, governance, and observability to the tip of the event cycle. Whereas this may appear counterintuitive for giant enterprises, the concept is to foster fast innovation inside a managed surroundings to show worth shortly. This sentiment was mirrored in our survey, which discovered that 10% of organizations adopting AI don’t have any devoted AI security crew, suggesting a willingness to prioritize pace in these early phases.
Collectively, these takeaways paint a transparent image of an enterprise AI panorama that’s maturing quickly, shifting from broad experimentation to centered, value-driven execution. The conversations at Rework 2025 confirmed that corporations are deploying AI brokers at the moment, even when they’ve needed to be taught powerful classes on the way in which. Many have already gone by one or two huge pivots since first attempting out generative AI one or two years in the past — so it’s good to get began early.
For a extra conversational dive into these themes and additional evaluation from the occasion, you may hearken to the total dialogue I had with unbiased AI developer Sam Witteveen on our current podcast beneath. We’ve additionally simply uploaded the main-stage talks at VB Rework right here. And our full protection of articles from the occasion is right here.
Take heed to the VB Rework takeaways podcast with Matt Marshall and Sam Witteveen right here:
Editor’s be aware: As a thank-you to our readers, we’ve opened up early hen registration for VB Rework 2026 — simply $200. That is the place AI ambition meets operational actuality, and also you’re going to wish to be within the room. Reserve your spot now.
Each day insights on enterprise use circumstances with VB Each day
If you wish to impress your boss, VB Each day has you lined. We provide the inside scoop on what corporations are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to sensible deployments, so you may share insights for max ROI.
Thanks for subscribing. Try extra VB newsletters right here.
An error occured.
I love how you write—it’s like having a conversation with a good friend. Can’t wait to read more!This post pulled me in from the very first sentence. You have such a unique voice!Seriously, every time I think I’ll just skim through, I end up reading every word. Keep it up!Your posts always leave me thinking… and wanting more. This one was no exception!Such a smooth and engaging read—your writing flows effortlessly. Big fan here!Every time I read your work, I feel like I’m right there with you. Beautifully written!You have a real talent for storytelling. I couldn’t stop reading once I started.The way you express your thoughts is so natural and compelling. I’ll definitely be back for more!Wow—your writing is so vivid and alive. It’s hard not to get hooked!You really know how to connect with your readers. Your words resonate long after I finish reading.