AI agents are going to run into problems with standards, operating budgets are being squeezed by SaaS vendors and the war for talent is going to get interesting.

Here's a look at some of the takeaways from Constellation Research's November BT150 call, which operates under Chatham House rules.

AI agents won't live up to expectations

  • Agent orchestration critical, but there are a lot of loose ends to tie up. AI agents will mean dependencies across platforms and it's unclear how the compatibility between agents will evolve. AI in 2025 will move from the infrastructure layer to the platform. Enterprises will struggle to bundle AI applications together.
  • Vendors are racing to build out their AI agent ecosystems. Salesforce has its Agentforce partner network and Google Cloud's marketplace will now feature agents from third parties. Boomi is pushing AI agent registries.
  • Be wary of these agent ecosystems since they can result in customers locked into platforms.
  • It's quite possible that 2025 will be a building year for AI agent deployments and enterprises will be slow to adopt them. Why? There aren't open standards yet for agent coordination and you'll need those in place to scale.

Also see: The art, ROI and FOMO of 2025 AI budget planning | GenAI's 2025 disconnect: The buildout, business value, user adoption and CxOs | Agentic AI without process optimization, orchestration will flop

Operating expenses squeezed by SaaS

  • Enterprises are running out of operating expenses and SaaS vendor pricing is leaving little for services or implementation. As a result, contracts are moving to bigger deals where services firms may discount and hope AI and automation makes up the difference.
  • CxOs on the call continued a common theme in 2024--they aren't seeing value from their SaaS providers, which increasingly aiming to be the sole data store for customers. Salesforce was cited as a vendor that wanted to be the data store for everything. "I'm like no, we're not locking in and bringing in external data to Salesforce," said one CxO. "The prices are ridiculous and I'm not seeing value."
  • One CxO said they've been aiming to use automation to reduce costs and become more efficient, but the technology is becoming more expensive.
  • Another CxO noted: "We have to budget for annual 10% increases on SaaS renewals but some incumbent vendors are pushing for 30%. That's ridiculous. We're back in legacy land."

Also see: Enterprise software 2025: Three big shifts to watch | Disruption is coming for enterprise software | BT150 zeitgeist: Dear SaaS vendors: Your customers are pissed

More from the BT150 calls:

Macro themes

  • Repatriation of talent has begun. Countries are offering US workers with visas deals to move home, keep their US salary and work in-country for 3- to 5-years. US executives are jumping at these offers in countries like India and Latin American countries.
  • Enterprises are pulling back on campus hiring and not hiring college grads at previous rates. The CxO concern is that this lack of hiring will mean companies will have trouble filling roles requiring four- to five-year experience in the future.
  • M&A is going to boom as well as the IPO market. The bet for 2025 is that IPOs and mergers and acquisitions will ramp with a change in administration in the US.

BT150 interviews:

 

 

 

Business Research Themes

Data to Decisions, Future of Work, Innovation and Product-led Growth

Roles

Chief Information Officer

Tags

#CXO, BT150