Person
1 episodes · 20 quoted claims
Phil Fersht says HFS Research coined the term robotic process automation alongside Blue Prism in 2012 and published the first analyst papers on it.
“We actually coined the phrase, um, alongside a company called Blue Prism when we launched it in 2012, and we did the first analyst papers on it.”
Phil Fersht says robotic process automation did not scale well and was brittle, although the concept was sound.
“but the problem with RPA was the technology didn't scale well, it was very brittle, but the the concept was there.”
Phil Fersht says the film Terminator predicted that computers would become self-aware in 2029.
“they actually predicted in 2029 was when humans were, uh, computers would become self-aware.”
Phil Fersht cites Microsoft Copilot summarizing emails and setting reminders as an example of a single-task agent.
“even like Copilot, you can use Copilot right now to summarize your emails and remind you to do things.”
Phil Fersht describes horizontal multi-agents as agents collaborating across business functions such as sales, marketing and customer service.
“something we're calling horizontal multi-agents, which is where you get different agents collaborating across various business functions”
Phil Fersht says some enterprises now require managers to show that work cannot be done by AI before hiring new staff.
“they're now insisting before you hire any new staff, you need to show that this work can't be done by AI.”
Phil Fersht says companies are exploring replacing services bought from firms such as IBM and Infosys with agentic software, a trend he calls services as software.
“companies are starting to think about how can I replicate the services I'm receiving from an IBM or an Infosys or one of these companies?”
Phil Fersht says one major organization he spoke to produces half a billion lines of code a year to keep running.
“one, um, major organization I spoke to produces half a billion lines of code a year to keep that organization functioning.”
Phil Fersht says he pays for ChatGPT Pro at $200 a month and is unsure he needs it.
“I'm using ChatGPT Pro, so I paid the extra money. Uh, I'm not sure I need the 200 a month package”
Phil Fersht says an HFS Research survey of over a thousand enterprises found 45% were worried about job loss or resistant to change.
“we spoke to over a thousand, uh, and major enterprises, um, uh, looking at the adoption of of gen ai and agentic, and um, 45% of them, uh, either worried about job loss or they're resistant to change.”
Phil Fersht says about 40% of surveyed enterprises are stuck in pilot purgatory with generative and agentic AI.
“you've got about forty of enterprises where they're still in that sort of pilot purgatory phase.”
Phil Fersht says software vendors such as Salesforce, with Agentforce, and ServiceNow are pushing into agentic AI to take market share from services firms.
“You've got the big software companies like Salesforce in particular, with their agent force rollout and ServiceNow.”
Phil Fersht describes a healthcare organization with 50,000 onshore staff answering inquiry calls whose leader sees half as replaceable by bots.
“an organization I spoke to with 50,000 onshore, onshore staff responding to healthcare inquiry calls.”
Phil Fersht says Citibank decided to reduce its service provider relationships from 144 to 50.
“You may have seen a recent announcement from, um, the bank, Citi, Citibank, who have decided to reduce, um, their 144 service provider relationships down to fifty.”
Phil Fersht says industry is considering replacing 500 offshore coding or support staff with about 25 onshore staff augmented by agentic technology.
“When you could potentially replace them with a team of maybe 25 people who are local and onshore, who are supported and augmented by agentic technology.”
Phil Fersht says robotic process automation stalled because it was handed to the CIO and diluted in the frozen middle of management.
“It would get dumped on the CIO's docket, and it would eventually get dumbed down. Two or three layers into the what we call the frozen middle within the organization, and that's when technology solutions go to die.”
Phil Fersht says about 46% of IT decisions are now made outside the chief information officer's organization.
“I think 46 of IT decisions are made outside of the CIO's walls of their offices.”
Phil Fersht says the CEO of Google DeepMind argued that creative, non-engineer people can now help develop code.
“But he was saying how, um, the new way to develop code is inviting creatives and people with heuristic creative skills to develop the code.”
Phil Fersht says building HFS Research's own agentic system has taken three years and it had not yet gone live.
“and it's it's taken us three years to get to a point we still haven't gone live with the new system yet.”
Phil Fersht says data privacy and cybersecurity are the biggest concerns executives have about adopting agentic AI.
“Data privacy and cyber are the number one problems, uh, and biggest concerns by country mile, to be honest with you.”