How businesses can invest safely in AI agents

Automation is reshaping customer experience, with AI-driven tools like chatbots and recommendation systems now a staple in everyday interactions. The rise of agentic AI—systems capable of planning, acting, and adapting to achieve goals—pushes automation even further.

Neeraj Verma, Vice President of Product Management at NICE, notes that consumers now expect seamless, unscripted interactions: "We're not just improving customer experience; we're meeting the baseline of what customers expect."

For businesses, AI agents offer transformative potential—handling complex service interactions, supporting employees in real time, and scaling dynamically. Yet, the shift from deterministic to non-deterministic systems introduces new challenges:

• Testing unpredictability: How to evaluate AI that doesn't respond identically each time?
• Balancing safety and flexibility: Ensuring secure access to core infrastructure.
• Managing costs, transparency, and ethical risks while achieving ROI.

Verma emphasizes that the past decade's journey in automation has been marked by evolving expectations—from rigid workflows to dynamic, generative systems. Companies must now focus on outcome-oriented design, prioritizing transparency, safety, and scalability.

"The big winners will be applied-AI companies tackling real-world use cases," he predicts.

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This content was produced by MIT Technology Review's Insights team, with AI tools limited to secondary production under human review.