AI agents: How to know when it’s the right time to invest

There has been plenty of talk about the role of AI agents since last year, and 2025 will be no different as GenAI continues to change how we work. MarTech solutions haven’t been immune to this phenomenon, and nearly any vendor worth their salt has rolled out some form of an AI agent already. Microsoft, HubSpot, Adobe, Salesforce all launched theirs towards the end of last year, and the core AI providers have followed since. These agents will continue to evolve, as many are still glorified workflows that access limited value within the scope of the platform only.

But it does beg the question: When should you invest in AI agents?

Different perspectives: Nadella vs. Brinker

At one end of the discussion, you have leaders like Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, who believes the time is now. He simplifies SaaS solutions in MarTech into create, read, update and delete (CRUD) + business logic and believes that the business logic is getting replaced by AI. If you haven’t heard this interview, it’s a must listen to start 2025, as Nadella shared valuable insights on AI's transformative potential, the role of AI agents, and the concept of near-infinite memory.

At the other end of the discussion, Scott Brinker, editor of the Chief Marketing Technologist, looks at AI agents in the form of an orchestration layer for MarTech. In the last 15 years, most of the largest vendors have pursued and then abandoned a “walled garden” strategy, but not before new integration players were able to enter the market. It’s safe to say that the future is integration, and AI is no different in that regard. While vendors are trying to figure out their agent capabilities, Scott states that "Multiple new categories of AI agents have joined in, each bringing their own take on intelligent orchestration of individual productivity and/or organisational process automation.”

This is probably going to get messier before it gets better.

Preparing for the future: Considerations for organisations

If you’re navigating this journey for your organisation, I believe there are three things to consider before investing in AI agents.

1. How much of your business logic has the potential to be orchestrated with a semi-autonomous agent without compromising content quality, customer service standards, and employee engagement?

2. How adaptible is your vendor strategy, and what % of your business logic are you willing to host in a rented platform without giving up significant parts of your IP?

3. How ready are your teams to embrace AI without trying to do the same things they did before but just in a more automated fashion?

The last question is critical. AI promises to streamline workflows, improve efficiency, and deliver more targeted marketing campaigns. But how much change are you willing to accept on a tech stack that is constantly changing anyway? How much are you expecting from your marketing teams to learn, adapt and respond to a new way of working? The question isn’t if this will happen, it’s a question of when you want this to happen for your business.

Balancing safety and innovation in AI development

In practice, Credera is building agents with a careful balance of new functionality and guardrails. We begin by imagining what the transformed business process or customer interaction would look like. This ensures that the client isn’t shoehorning AI, or agents, where they don’t belong. Agents need some amount of autonomous decision-making, and these decisions need to work within the risk threshold of the organisation. The answer is different for each client and depends on which part of the business is in scope. In regulated industries, where most of our focus lies, the cost of getting it wrong is high, so we usually build a ringfenced infrastructure where AI can be safely tested.

How Credera can help

At Credera, we understand the complexity of adopting and integrating AI in ways that drive tangible value. With over 20 years of experience delivering advanced data and AI solutions in highly regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, and the UK public sector, we are uniquely positioned to help organisations navigate this era of change.

Our expertise spans all areas of AI industrialisation – from infrastructure planning to solution deployment and business transformation, ensuring that businesses can harness the opportunities of AI while addressing regulatory, ethical, and operational challenges. If you are an organisation looking to get ahead in this new landscape, contact us to discuss how we can support you on this journey.

• Artificial Intelligence
• AI