Ethenta is a recently launched advisory company focused on helping companies understand and transform using agentic AI. Agentic AI is a transformative technology that promises a future business environment staffed with automated bots, but these systems still have many critics.
In 2025, research from IDC suggested that 34% of enterprises have started adopting agentic AI, so it is becoming an important technology to understand. I caught up with the founder of Ethenta, Andrew Hall, to ask why he launched the business and to find out more about the agentic opportunity.
I started out by asking what the analysts and consultants are missing. Why is there a need for this new business right now?
Andrew said: “Most consultants and analysts are still looking at AI as a technology category. They analyse what the market is doing today, but the market is mostly buying more SaaS, adding features or producing expensive PowerPoint POVs without ever reshaping the operation.”
He added: “What is missing is the evolution of business leaders. This new era needs creativity, imagination and leaders who can visualise a different way of running their enterprise. They need help stepping out of the vendor noise, seeing what is possible with an orchestrated, knowledge led model and then moving through the stages that make it real. This cannot be a bolt on. It is a shift in how the organisation works.
Commenting on the new business, he added: “Ethenta was created to close that gap. We help leaders redesign their future and map a secure path to it.”
I asked why there is such negativity in the coverage of agentic AI. It’s easy to find examples of failed projects or projects that failed to live up to the promises of the technology vendor.
Andrew said: “Many leaders are choosing the wrong technology, often generic GenAI that cannot operate in their real world. They are told that the “freebie” agents inside all you can eat SaaS licences will fix operational problems. They don’t. Many teams also lack clarity on what AI can genuinely affect, limiting imagination and context. Education is low and vendor noise fills the gaps.”
Importantly, he added: “The biggest issue is that tech is leading the business rather than business leading the tech. These failures are caused more by poor education and visualisation which always tends to lead to poor selection, not by AI itself.”
So how can executives move forward and explore what is possible in their business? What is the low-hanging fruit?
Andrew explained: “The first shift is to think knowledge not data. Every channel, every actor and every system should be able to access the same intelligence layer so agents, managers and customers all see consistent answers. Once that foundation is in place, the early wins come from simple autonomous capabilities that handle clear, low risk tasks and agent assist where we surface insights and realtime guidance.”
Clearly there is some work to be done inside most companies – to change the culture of how data is used and also how it is stored.
Continuing his answer, Andrew said: “The low hanging fruit is the creation of a shared knowledge layer and the first wave of safe autonomy that shows leaders what Agentic really feels like inside their business but done in a way that empowers the business to choose what and how fast to automate.”
But this cultural change seems like a challenge. We are talking about reshaping the enterprise, not just using new software tools. Why is this necessary?
Andrew said: “AI is no longer something owned by IT. For the first time, business leaders and SMEs can step back, remove the noise and genuinely reimagine how their operation could work in light of what Agentic systems can do. Bolting on tools only adds more edge case fixes to an already antiquated model.”
He added: “Transformation is the process of recreating the operation so knowledge flows, autonomy can grow safely and both humans and Agentic systems work as one. The hardest part is choosing a partner who actually knows how to do this. Despite the noise, true Agentic expertise is probably less than 0.05 percent of the market. Most vendors are still offering tech plasters. Real transformation is about rebuilding the shape of the business for the intelligent era.”
Although Andrew makes the case for transformation, I imagine that many business leaders would still be wary of such a fundamental change to their business. How can they be convinced that deep architectural changes are needed?
Andrew explained: “Most executives know something fundamental is not working. They feel the weight of legacy processes, the endless workarounds, the fragmentation across teams and channels. They also see the noise around AI, the inflated promises and the confusion created by vendors and consultants. Trust is low. Confidence is low. The desire to change is high, but the path is unclear.”
This lack of confidence is one of the biggest issues that I can see, so I asked Andrew how he starts planning an AI transformation with clients.
He said: “The first thing to understand is that this is not big T transformation. It is a progressive evolution enabled by an intelligent layer that matures over time and lets the organisation move at its own pace. You do not jump from people led to autonomous. You step into it safely and deliberately.”
He added: “It begins with education, not technology. Leaders and teams need to see what a fresh canvas could look like when orchestrated Agentic capabilities are applied to their CX operation, free from today’s constraints and free from the noise made by AI vendors and consultants. We bring business SMEs and operational teams together so they can imagine that future state clearly and with confidence.”
Andrew described how the most important change is the shift from thinking about data inside a business and seeing it as knowledge. He said: “This is not about building huge databases or traditional BI layers. The intelligent layer evolves by connecting systems of record, transactional signals and the insights surfaced by the Agentic environment. Over time it learns, joins dots, highlights issues early and shows where the organisation can adapt.”
I was interested to understand how success is measured. Are we measuring the number of agentic assistants deployed or the outcomes they are achieving – the productivity increase?
Andrew said: “You measure success in two layers. The first is operational. The second is strategic. Both matter, but they mature at different speeds. Operationally, the early signs are simple and very visible. Better flow. Fewer handoffs. Faster resolution. Less effort for customers and agents. Improved routing accuracy. More consistent knowledge. Reduced backlog. These are the signals that the intelligent layer is doing its job and that the organisation is becoming more stable and predictable.”
He then added: “Strategically, the measure is different. It is about whether the business is becoming more adaptable, more autonomous and more capable of scaling without throwing more people and processes at the problem. It is about whether leaders can see issues earlier, act faster and make better decisions because the system is surfacing insight rather than burying it. And it is about whether the organisation is ready for the next step toward autonomy.”
I asked Andrew about some real-life examples of companies that have successfully deployed agentic systems. He first talked about a support portal: “They introduced a unified colleague support portal with voice and digital invocation, proactive broadcasts and guided SOP search. They connected systems of record and began building the intelligent layer fronting all channels, applying early triage to identify trends and fast automations but filtering and prioritising contacts based on context and business rules. Agentic-based Agent Assist now prepares context, improves routing and removes repetitive steps. Simple autonomous flows handle routine queries. The intelligent layer tracks trends for proactive care. This is an ongoing evolution where the operation becomes more stable, intelligent and proactive each month, not a completed transformation. Over time there will be a rebalancing of human agents and Agentic autonomy which, as work is progressively automated and eSAT goes up, will also reduce attrition of staff, thereby achieving the business case ROI.”
He also described a very interesting idea, sales agents watching the market for triggers that demonstrate a company is looking to buy services. He said: “A global tech provider implemented an orchestrated multi – Agentic (50+ agents) sales engine to harvest thousands of market triggers to identify buying flags. Each night the system surfaces a prioritised set of companies to the sales leader with insights and rational to follow as they approach those companies in the prioritised order. The results have generated in excess of $200m net new revenue since going live.”
I asked Andrew about the idea of an ‘AI winter…’ What happens if AI research slows down because the technology companies find they are struggling to generate revenue?
Andrew said it’s better to look inside your own organisation rather than worrying about what is happening in San Francisco. He said: “The shift that matters is not external. It is internal. The real change happens when companies start thinking and behaving differently. There will always be new, clever AI. That pace will not stop now, its self perpetuating. But the real value comes from how organisations choose to apply it, how they redesign their operations and how they develop their people to work in a more intelligent way.”
He also added: “In many ways, a slowdown may actually help. It gives leaders time to breathe, time to learn and time to choose the right approach rather than chasing the next shiny tool. The noise softens and the thinking sharpens.”
Andrew is suggesting that the possible AI winter is just a media headline and we should really be focused on what our companies could look like if they are designed around knowledge.
The evolution is possible, but it will take evangelists like Andrew to really push at the door of experienced business leaders who are yet to see the opportunity.
Let’s face it, in most companies the marketing team doesn’t even let the customer service team know when a promotion is running. We need to rewire the enterprise so information is available to everyone who needs it – human or AI.
As the number of successful case studies increases, I think we will hear more about agentic – it is the new wave of transformation that will take us into the next decade.
