Why we don't really care about AI agents
Agents may be a cool metaphor, but enterprise needs are very different
In countless conversations with Fortune 500 companies, the message is clear: while AI agents may enable individuals, they don’t enable organizations. Enterprises don’t need digital assistants; they need infrastructure. They need a platform that transforms the way they operate—not just a cool metaphor.
From healthcare to logistics to fintech, we’ve heard the same frustrations over and over:
Agents Enable Individuals; Enterprises Need Platforms: Enterprise challenges aren’t about making one person more efficient—they’re about enabling entire teams and company-wide processes. The tools they use must scale across workflows and departments seamlessly.
Progressive Learning Matters: Businesses don’t want static systems; they want a platform that evolves with them. They need technology that learns the nuances of their data and processes, becoming smarter over time and actively driving insights that increase revenue.
Efficiency Alone Isn’t Enough: The endless grind of optimizing back-office operations is a dead end. What companies need is a way to package that functionality into critical, customer-facing workflows—the kind that drive growth and build competitive advantage.
The Problem with Agents
AI agents are designed to emulate human decision-making. But in enterprise settings, this approach is fundamentally flawed:
Limited Scope: Agents can only address discrete tasks or individual workflows. They’re ill-equipped to handle the systemic complexity of large organizations.
Brittleness: Like RPA, they’re prone to failure when processes change. This creates ongoing maintenance costs and operational headaches.
Shallow Impact: By focusing on automating existing tasks, agents miss the bigger opportunity: rethinking processes altogether to unlock new capabilities.
Agents, in short, are reactive. Enterprises need something proactive.
The Platform Enterprises Are Asking For
The feedback from our conversations with business leaders drives bem’s approach. They don’t want tools that mimic workflows—they want a platform that transforms them. Here’s what they’ve asked for, and how bem delivers:
Enable Teams, Not Just Individuals
bem is built for scale. By focusing on transforming unstructured chaos into structured, application-ready data, we enable entire teams to work more effectively. Whether it’s handling complex data from legacy systems or automating integrations, bem serves as the connective tissue across departments and processes.Learn and Improve Over Time
Unlike static agents, bem progressively learns about your business. From understanding unique data schemas to identifying opportunities for optimization, our platform becomes smarter with every interaction. This isn’t just about reducing costs—it’s about increasing revenue by unlocking insights that were previously inaccessible.Move Beyond Efficiency
Efficiency is a starting point, not the goal. bem’s focus is on turning back-office operations into front-office opportunities. Logistics companies use bem to transform operational data into real-time customer dashboards. Healthcare providers turn messy claims into actionable decisions. This isn’t just streamlining—it’s creating value that customers can see.
The Bigger Picture: Why Enterprises Are Frustrated
For decades, enterprises have been caught in the same cycle: endless investments in tools and platforms that promise incremental gains in efficiency but fail to deliver meaningful change. The back office becomes a Sisyphean task, a mountain of inefficiencies that never stops growing.
bem offers a way out.
Our approach isn’t about patching broken systems—it’s about replacing them entirely. We provide a foundation for business processes that scale, evolve, and actively contribute to growth.
A Generational Shift in Business Computing
The shift from service-heavy operations to software-first businesses is well underway. Boards are demanding scalable, product-driven models, and companies are realizing that their existing tools can’t keep up. Fortune 500 leaders have told us what they need: platforms that work with their data, anticipate their needs, and unlock new revenue streams.
bem isn’t just another product; it’s infrastructure for the future. By addressing the root causes of inefficiency and building tools that scale with the business, we’re enabling a generational shift in how companies operate.
Conclusion: What Enterprises Actually Need
AI agents may be a clever metaphor, but they’re not what enterprises need. Enterprises need platforms that enable entire teams, progressively learn, and actively create value for their customers. bem is built on these principles.
The back office isn’t just a cost center—it’s the engine that powers growth. It’s time to stop tweaking around the edges and start building something transformative.
One last thing: a small rant
Let’s talk about metaphors—specifically, the metaphor of the “agent.” It’s catchy, sure. It suggests sophistication, autonomy, and intelligence. But for enterprises, it’s a distraction.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: AI agents don’t fundamentally change anything. They’re stuck mimicking human actions, bound by the same inefficiencies and structural limitations they’re supposed to solve. It’s automation dressed up in a suit, but it’s still automation.
Meanwhile, enterprises are drowning in complexity. They’re fighting to make sense of fragmented systems, outdated formats, and manual processes that shouldn’t exist in 2024. And what do they get? More tools to automate the mess rather than eliminate it. It’s like giving someone a fancy mop to clean up a flood when what they really need is plumbing that works.
This isn’t a knock on the engineers building these systems. It’s a knock on the approach. Replicating workflows with agents or bots is a surface-level fix. The real opportunity lies in rethinking how work gets done at a structural level—turning chaos into clarity, inefficiency into revenue, and internal complexity into external value.
At bem, we’re not here to anthropomorphize AI or romanticize automation. We’re here to build the infrastructure enterprises need to thrive. If that means ditching metaphors and getting our hands dirty with the real problems businesses face, so be it. The future isn’t going to be built by agents. It’s going to be built by platforms that work.