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Enterprise operations are undergoing a major rewrite as intelligent agents step in as the new digital workforce. While some companies focus on task-based automation for cost savings, the bigger shift is happening at the level of orchestration — where AI reimagines entire value chains, according to Todd Lohr (pictured), head of ecosystems and national operations leader for advisory markets at KPMG U.S. “I think we’re going to see a massive shift in the next several years as you think about AI’s impact on how you deliver software throughout the enterprise, specifically with agents being that unifying labor, or unifying element for how you get work done at the enterprise,” he said. “Where I think a lot of organizations are really focused right now is on the operating model side of it, and focused on cost takeout, focused on more automation of tasks.” Lohr spoke with theCUBE’s John Furrier and Gemma Allen at Dreamforce, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. The conversation explored the KPMG TACO framework and the evolving role of AI in value chain disruption. (* Disclosure below.) The next frontier of consulting and enterprise operations KPMG’s TACO framework — which stands for task, automation, collaboration and orchestrator agents — captures the expanding role of intelligent agents in enterprise operations. Rather than focusing solely on incremental automation, the real shift lies in orchestration, where AI agents reshape business models entirely, according to Lohr. “Using that framework helps explain the business disruption, where a lot of folks are deploying task-based agents to simplify, which is more on the operational side,” he said. “But when you start thinking about orchestration and disruption of entire value chains of your organization, we have to rewrite the fundamental playbook for our organizations. That’s really going to focus on the business model disruption, not just the task automation or orchestration or some of the other pieces.” Additionally, C-suite executives also don’t have as much time to refactor operations as before, as concepts that once lived in PowerPoint decks for years are now outdated within days. Chief information officers and chief technical officers face mounting pressure to plan long-term strategies in an environment where the tech landscape shifts weekly, according to Lohr. “We have a massive clock speed dilemma, not only in professional services for how we help our clients, but our clients themselves are all facing this massive construct of the world changing so fast,” he said. “I’m sitting at Salesforce, historically a [customer relationship management company], and the world’s leading CRM. But what I think we’ve learned of this week is it’s not a CRM. It’s a modern platform for how you do work, across the front, the middle and the back office.” Fortunately, this speed also creates opportunity. As Salesforce Inc.’s ecosystem expands — from Slack Technologies LLC, a Salesforce company, and MuleSoft LLC to Informatica Inc. — it unlocks a new level of integration across data, governance and AI, according to Lohr. “You have the announcements they made this year with Informatica,” he said. “We just did a session earlier today on Informatica and being able to get your data governance right, being able to get your data quality right, so that you can feed that into Salesforce and Agentforce. [Being] able to build those agents is going to be key.” Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Dreamforce: (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dreamforce. Neither Salesforce, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.) Photo: SiliconANGLE
