2025 Retrospective: AI Hype, Agentic Reality, and Where We Go from Here
Episode Overview
In this year-end episode, CCO Sean Heuer and COO Ari Stowe look back on what truly defined 2025 in IT and agentic AI. They unpack the explosion of AI experimentation, the strain it put on IT teams, and why hype often outpaced real value. They also share predictions on what it’ll take for enterprises to turn AI promise into measurable outcomes in 2026.
Key Takeaways
- AI dominated the conversation in 2025, but the real shift was operational pressure on IT. It wasn’t just “more AI tools.” It was more experimentation across the business, more vendors, more integrations, and more complexity landing on IT’s desk. It was about focusing on turning signals into resolution.
- The biggest blocker isn’t capability; it’s adoption. As AI becomes more embedded in workflows, the friction looks less like “does it work?” and more like “do we trust it, govern it, and change how teams operate around it?”
- IT teams are under a new kind of speed mandate. In past cycles, laggards could wait. Now, if IT can’t move quickly enough to provide safe, approved options, the business will move anyway, and that drives shadow AI and unmanaged risk.
- 2026 will be the year tickets stop being the center of gravity. Sean’s view is that tickets increasingly become audit trails and compliance records, while the actual work shifts to agents, automation, and knowledge-driven resolution paths.
- Expect consolidation and “vendor firing” as reality catches up to hype. Many organizations bought fast in 2025. In 2026, they’ll rationalize tool sprawl, tighten security posture, and cut tools that don’t show durable ROI (especially “wrappers” without differentiation).
FAQ
Q: What trends most defined 2025 in the agentic IT space?
A: AI dominated headlines, but the defining shift was the operational impact. Rapid experimentation across the business drove tool sprawl, complexity, and new security risks, forcing IT back into a strategic role to manage adoption, integration, and governance at scale.
Timestamp: 2:32–5:26
Q: What became harder for IT teams even as AI tools improved?
A: Keeping up without losing control. As AI became easier to adopt, business teams moved faster, often bypassing IT entirely! This led to shadow AI, expanded attack surfaces, and new categories of risk that traditional IT processes weren’t designed to handle.
Timestamp: 5:50–8:44
Q: What mindset should IT leaders adopt heading into 2026?
A: Leaders should measure success by work prevented rather than work resolved. Tickets increasingly become audit and compliance artifacts, while automation and agents handle repeatable tasks. Human teams should focus on exceptions, novel problems, and high-impact experiences instead of routine processing.
Timestamp: 25:10–31:06
