S9E6 - The Future of Intelligent Agents in SaaS ft. Bhaskar Roy, Chief of AI Products and Solutions at Workato

Bhaskar Roy, Chief of AI Products and Solutions at Workato, breaks down the fundamental shift from app-centric thinking to agent-first architecture. This conversation cuts through the AI hype to reveal how enterprises are moving beyond simple content generation to deploy agents at the core of business processes—from quote-to-cash workflows to IT helpdesk operations. Roy reveals the critical gap between low-agency experimentation and high-value automation, outlines the governance frameworks required for autonomous agents, and explains why getting hands-on is the only way to separate signal from noise in the agentic era.

Key Takeaways

1. The Agency Gap: Most Companies Are Stuck in Low-Value Territory

• Gartner research shows most companies remain in low-agency activities like content creation and email writing, while maximum ROI comes from agents executing core processes like order-to-cash and supply chain management
• SaaS is deterministic and requires months for customization, while agents adapt and execute in real-time
• The transformation eliminates bottlenecks where process experts depend on developers for integrations

2. Purpose-Specific Agents with Enterprise Skills Beat General-Purpose Approaches

• Agents must be narrowly focused with defined skills—finance agents restricted to finance users, each agent limited to relevant capabilities only
• Governance controls agent-to-agent collaboration, with supervisor agents coordinating and ensuring compliance
• Agent authentication ensures agents respect user permissions—only updating data the individual user can access

3. App Events and Enterprise Acumen Enable Proactive Intelligence

• Agents listen to events across systems—new hires, leads, tickets—then reason, contextualize, and take autonomous action
• Enterprise acumen monitors KPIs continuously and proactively recommends actions as metrics fluctuate
• The shift from reactive to proactive requires human-in-the-loop now, but full autonomy approaches rapidly

4. The Mindset Shift: From App-Centric to Agent-First Thinking

• Stop thinking about which app to use—start asking which agent can handle core business processes better
• When agents become core to business, reliability matters—platforms must provide innovation with enterprise-grade trust
• Reading about AI isn't learning—build agents, test them, discover what's real versus hype

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction
00:46 - Journey at Workato: From Integration to Intelligent Agents
03:40 - The Evolution from SaaS to Agentic Workflows
07:51 - Best-of-Breed Apps Creating Data Silos and Integration Challenges
10:54 - Employee Productivity Gains Through Unified Agent Interfaces
13:20 - The Agency Gap: Low-Value vs. Core Business Process Automation
17:32 - Real-World Agent Deployments: Quote-to-Cash and IT Helpdesk
20:12 - Proactive vs. Reactive Agents: Where Does Automation Stop?
24:42 - Trust, Governance, and Control in Autonomous Agent Systems
28:42 - Preparing for the Apps-to-Agents Transition
33:04 - Lightning Round: Getting Hands-On to Shorten Learning Curves

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