How AI Agents Will Impact Your Business (Google DeepMind Explains)
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We often speak about the history of technology in terms of revolutionary inventions: the steam engine, the printing press, the internet. Today, we stand at the precipice of another such era.
In the latest episode of The AI Vantage, Salim Hasham (Director of AI Transformation at Google Cloud) sat down with Tris Warkentin, Director of Product Management at Google DeepMind. Warkentin isn't just an observer; he has been in the trenches of modern AI, working on everything from the original Transformer models to LaMDA and now Gemini.
At Zlink AI Services, we closely monitor these developments to ensure our clients are not just keeping up, but leading the pack. This conversation shed light on the most critical shift happening in our industry right now: The move from Generative AI to Agentic AI.
Here is what businesses need to know about this transformation and how Zlink is positioned to help you navigate it.
1. Demystifying the "Magic": From Probability to Reasoning
One of the most grounding moments of the discussion was Warkentin's reminder: "AI is not magic; it's math."
For years, we have utilized machine learning that is probabilistic—predicting the next likely word or pixel. However, the industry is currently undergoing a massive shift toward Reasoning.
What is the difference?
- Generative AI creates content based on a prompt (e.g., "Write an email").
- Agentic AI uses reasoning to take action to achieve a goal (e.g., "Analyze my calendar, realize I'm running late for a flight, and book me a cab to the airport automatically").
Warkentin describes this as an approximation of a thought process that gets from the beginning of a task to the end of a task faithfully. This "Reasoning" capability is the missing link that allows AI to transition from a tool we simply talk to, into a collaborator that works alongside us.
2. The "Internet Moment" of 1998
Warkentin drew a powerful parallel between the current state of AI and the internet in 1998. Back then, we knew the internet would revolutionize commerce, communication, and borders—but it didn't happen overnight. It required deep societal and business integration (the "ditch digging") to make the technology useful.
We are in the same phase with Agentic AI. The technology exists to optimize supply chains, dynamic pricing, and complex workflows. However, the adoption requires a step-wise journey.
The Zlink Perspective:
Many businesses are stuck building basic support chatbots—the equivalent of a static webpage in 1998. While valuable for efficiency, they barely scratch the surface. The real opportunity lies in Agentic Transformation: redesigning business workflows where AI agents act as independent operators to optimize distinct parts of your value chain.
3. What Does an "Agentic Business" Look Like?
The vision painted by Google DeepMind is not one of a single "god-like" AI running a company. Instead, the future enterprise will likely consist of hundreds of specialized agents.
Imagine an ecosystem where:
- Optimization Agents constantly monitor and adjust supply chain logistics.
- Pricing Agents adjust dynamic pricing models in real-time based on regional data.
- Negotiation Agents interact with external vendors autonomously.
This shifts the paradigm from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to Human-Computer Collaboration.
However, Warkentin advises caution: "Match the business outcome to the technical reality." This is not a magic bullet that solves everything tomorrow. It is a multi-year journey of integrating agents into your infrastructure where they can deliver high-fidelity, accurate results.
4. The Challenges: Authenticity and Security
With great power comes new risks. As AI agents become more capable of mimicking human interaction (sounding like a family member or creating hyper-realistic video), the risks of spear-phishing and media manipulation rise.
Warkentin highlighted that the pace of technology is moving so fast that "novel surfaces for bad things to happen" are opening up. Security, verifying media authenticity, and maintaining a "human-in-the-loop" for critical decisions are paramount.
Security First
Implementing strict guardrails and verification protocols to ensure AI agents act safely and authentically.
Human-in-the-Loop
Maintaining human oversight for critical decisions while allowing agents to handle routine operations autonomously.
How This Relates to Zlink AI Services
This interview underscores exactly why Zlink AI Services exists.
Google builds the engines—incredible models like Gemini and infrastructure like Vertex AI. But as Warkentin noted, the hard work is the "ditch digging" of integrating these models into actual business processes.
Here is how Zlink bridges the gap between Google's research and your business reality:
- Beyond the Chatbot: We help you identify high-value "Agentic" opportunities. We look beyond simple customer support to find areas in your operations (logistics, data analysis, internal workflows) where reasoning agents can drive ROI.
- The Step-Wise Journey: We don't sell you science fiction. We align with the philosophy of matching business outcomes to current technical realities, building roadmaps that scale as the technology matures.
- Hiding the Complexity: Warkentin mentioned that Google's goal is to abstract away the technical complexity (the hundreds of servers needed to answer one query). Zlink takes that further by abstracting the implementation complexity. We handle the prompt engineering, the API integrations, and the security protocols so you can focus on the output.
- Safety First: Recognizing the risks of agentic systems, Zlink prioritizes security and ethical AI implementation, ensuring your agents act within strict guardrails.
Conclusion
Tris Warkentin believes that in 10 years, we will wonder how we ever lived without AI agents doing things on our behalf. But those who act now—who begin the work of transforming their data and workflows to be "agent-ready"—will be the ones leading that future economy.
The Agentic era is here. Are you ready to build?