AI Agents Drive Enterprise Efficiency and New Markets

The integration of agentic artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping enterprise operations, moving beyond mere automation to unlock unprecedented efficiencies and entirely new business opportunities. Jon Fort of CNBC recently convened members of the Technology Executive Council—George Maddaloni, CTO of Operations at Mastercard; Ajit Naidu, CIO of Retirement, Wealth & Digital at TIAA; and Raj Sharma, EY Managing Partner of Growth & Innovation—to discuss the profound impact of this evolving technology. Their insights reveal a strategic pivot from simply leveraging AI capabilities to thoughtfully embedding agentic systems into core business functions and exploring novel revenue streams.

Mastercard, for instance, is already seeing tangible benefits from deploying AI agents. George Maddaloni highlighted how these agents accelerate critical processes, stating, "We've seen our product onboarding agent actually make things 11% faster for customers to onboard in our products." Beyond customer-facing improvements, agentic AI also empowers internal teams, allowing consultants to "surf through 40,000 sources of information much more rapidly," drastically improving knowledge access and decision-making speed. This demonstrates a clear trend towards operational optimization, where AI agents act as intelligent co-pilots, streamlining complex workflows and reducing manual overhead.

However, the rapid deployment of AI agents also necessitates a careful consideration of their role within the human workforce. Ajit Naidu of TIAA emphasized a structured approach to adoption, asserting that organizations should focus "not so much what AI can do, but what AI should do." This ethical and strategic perspective underscores the importance of defining boundaries and understanding how human workers will adapt and collaborate with these intelligent systems. TIAA is proactively addressing this by establishing internal guilds, ensuring existing talent is trained and equipped to leverage AI at scale, fostering a symbiotic relationship between human expertise and machine intelligence.

Perhaps the most transformative insight came from Raj Sharma of EY, who articulated the potential for AI agents to open up entirely new market segments. He explained that by altering the fundamental cost structure of doing business, AI enables enterprises to serve previously unviable markets. "Now, if I can do the work with agents at a different cost rate, I have a huge market of trillions of dollars in the mid-market that we can enter in that particular area," Sharma noted. This suggests that agent-first business models are not just about incremental improvements but about radical shifts in market accessibility and competitive advantage, presenting significant opportunities for growth and disruption. The ability to dramatically lower the cost of service delivery through AI agents fundamentally reconfigures the economic calculus for market entry.

The discussions underscore that enterprise adoption of agentic AI is multifaceted, driven by a pursuit of operational excellence, a commitment to responsible integration, and a keen eye on unprecedented market expansion. Companies are moving beyond theoretical exploration to practical, impactful deployments that are already yielding measurable results and pointing towards a future where AI agents are integral to strategic growth.