How IT leaders use agentic AI for business workflows

"We’re not just automating a handful of manual tasks and processes across a department or two," says Kellie Romack, CDIO at ServiceNow. "We’re infusing AI agents everywhere to reimagine how we work and drive measurable value."

Agentic AI is the new frontier in AI evolution, taking center stage in today's enterprise discussion. AI agents topped Forrester’s 2024 trend list, and Salesforce expects one billion in use by the end of fiscal year 2026.

Though loosely applied, agentic AI generally refers to granting AI agents more autonomy to optimize tasks and chain together increasingly complex actions.

UIPath's 2025 Agentic AI Report surveyed US IT execs from companies with $1 billion or more in revenue and found that 93% are highly interested in agentic AI for their business. The study found better oversight of business workflows to be the top perceived benefit of it.

"Using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify," added Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke in a leaked internal memo. Many organizations are in the process of moving AI hype into calculated action. So what are these specific workflows that more autonomous AI can supercharge?

Use cases for AI agents span countless business workflows. "AI agents are valuable across sales, service, marketing, IT, HR, and really all business teams," says Andy White, SVP of business technology at Salesforce. And executives see a high potential in streamlining the sales funnel, real-time data analysis, personalized customer experience, employee onboarding, incident resolution, fraud detection, financial compliance, and supply chain optimization.

United Airlines' AI strategy: The airline that makes decisions fastest wins

At United Airlines, AI has been a long-term strategic investment, not a recent initiative. While many companies scrambled to adopt AI capabilities during the recent gen AI boom, United had already built the foundation necessary for effective implementation. This forward-thinking approach stems from a clear business philosophy that in the airline industry specifically, the carrier quickest to make complex decisions gains the competitive edge. United's methodical building of data infrastructure, compliance frameworks, and specialized talent demonstrates how traditional companies can develop true AI readiness that delivers measurable results for both customers and employees.

How have you prepared United Airlines for the current state of AI innovation?

Prior to generative AI, we used AI for customer personalization and marketing campaigns, as well as in our contact centers to help agents deliver more personalized service. We've been building the gen AI foundation for years because we know the most decisive airline wins. The complexity could be customer distress, a storm, an airport slowdown, or any other situation with a lot of data and urgency to empower employees and customers with relevant, in-the-moment information. Much of this work has been in organizing our data and building a secure platform for machine learning and other AI modeling. We also built an organization skilled in the data engineering and data science required for AI.

What are the essential building blocks to get into a position of AI readiness?

The list is long, but I'll focus on two key capabilities. The first, which is half the battle, is getting your arms around the data and making it available, which means having the engineering ability to abstract it for use in the models. The second is having connective tissue between the technology, operating, cyber, and legal teams to create a compliance structure required to deploy AI solutions with the proper safeguards. The cross-functional risk management team is also essential because you don't want to jeopardize your entire business over an AI pilot.

Talk us through a gen AI use case.

What is a cloud architect? A vital role for success in the cloud

What does a cloud architect do?

Cloud architects are responsible for managing the cloud computing architecture in an organization, especially as cloud technologies grow increasingly complex. Cloud computing architecture encompasses everything involved with cloud computing, including front-end platforms, servers, storage, delivery, and networks required to manage cloud storage.

Cloud architects are IT specialists who have the skills and knowledge to navigate complex cloud environments, lead teams, develop and implement cloud strategies, and ensure cloud systems stay up to date and run smoothly. It’s an advanced job title, with cloud architects typically reporting to the IT director, CIO, CTO, or other technology executives.

These IT pros are tasked with overseeing the adoption of cloud-based AI solutions in an enterprise environment, further expanding the responsibility scope of the role. As organizations continue to implement cloud-based AI services, cloud architects will be tasked with ensuring the proper infrastructure is in place to accommodate growth. It’s also a position that requires strong leadership and collaboration skills to run cloud teams and work across other departments to identify and communicate cloud needs.

Cloud architect job description

To handle the complexities of cloud adoption or migration, most organizations will want to hire a cloud architect, if they haven’t already. These IT pros can help navigate the process, which can take years navigating potential risks and ensuring a smooth transition. At organizations that have already completed their cloud adoption, cloud architects help maintain, oversee, troubleshoot, and optimize cloud architecture over time.

The responsibilities of a cloud architect include:

• Overseeing necessary cultural changes in the organization for cloud adoption
• Working with senior leadership to identify long- and short-term goals
• Developing a cloud strategy and coordinating the adoption process
• Recruiting and hiring skilled talent for cloud management
• Identifying the necessary applications, software, and hardware for cloud adoption
• Overseeing governance and mitigating cloud risks
• Establishing best practices for cloud security across the company
• Managing budgets, estimating costs, and operating at scale
• Assisting with adoption and implementation of cloud-based AI services
• Regularly monitoring the performance of cloud infrastructure and identifying areas for optimization

Cloud architect jobs

According to a report from global tech market analyst firm Canalys, spending last year on global cloud infrastructure services grew 20% from nearly $268 billion in 2023 to just over $321 billion in 2024. Organizations have accelerated cloud adoption now that AI tools are readily available, which has driven a demand for cloud architects to help manage cloud infrastructure. And Canalys doesn’t expect that growth to slow down, predicting that spending on global cloud infrastructure will grow 19% in 2025. Cloud architect jobs will continue to be in demand as AI adoption continues to grow, and companies continue to scale AI models.

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