Welcome to this exclusive interview with Chris Leone, executive vice president, AI agents and HCM and supply chain management clouds. In this conversation, Bob Evans and Leone explore Oracle’s bold vision for the future — where AI agents and enterprise applications work seamlessly together to enable autonomous processes and elevate organizational efficiency.
Highlights
Chris Leone’s New Role and Its Implications (00:23)
Leone recently became executive VP, AI agents, HCM, and supply chain management clouds at Oracle. He discusses the new role’s significance and how there’s an increasingly tight integration of applications and agents. He explains that agents act as productivity multipliers for applications, enabling new business areas. The conversation touches on the importance of combining data with business applications to drive autonomous actions.
Examples of Agent-Driven Productivity Multipliers (02:26)
Leone provides a manufacturing supply chain example where an agent can handle maintenance issues autonomously. The agent can interpret error codes, access service histories, and place maintenance work orders without human intervention. Customers are starting to deploy these agents one task at a time, gradually realizing significant time and cost savings.
Internal Mobility and HR Processes with Agents (07:22)
Leone puts forth an HR example where an internal mobility agent can help employees map out their careers. The agent can understand employee skills, identify skills gaps, and create personalized career development curricula. These agents bring improved engagement and personalization to HR processes. They also can handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
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Customer Adoption and Overcoming Hesitancy (11:26)
Leone says there’s a fear factor among customers due to lack of understanding. In response, Oracle is deploying generative services to help customers get started with agents. These generative services can create job descriptions, summarize orders, and handle other tasks quickly and efficiently. Customers are gradually becoming comfortable with agents and moving from simple to more complex deployments.
Partner Involvement and AI Agent Studio (14:18)
Leone explains that partners are using AI Agent Studio to build industry-specific agents. The AI Agent Studio is an integrated development environment for building agents, available to customers and partners. Leone talks about Oracle’s cost-effective approach, with the company absorbing the costs of large language models. The conversation touches on the benefits of using Oracle’s pre-defined templates and partners’ potential to add value through industry expertise.
Future of Apps and Agents (18:52)
Looking to the future of apps and agents, Leone says to expect to see a continued tight coupling of apps and agents. Leone believes that the combination of apps and agents will drive significant productivity gains in operational processes. Leone mentions that customers are already seeing value from agent deployments and are moving towards more complex, multi-task processes.
Timeline for Agent Deployments (22:08)
What’s the timeline for agent deployments? Leone estimates significant progress will be made in the next six months. Leone notes that thousands of customers have already deployed agents and generative services. The focus is on delivering high-value agents that can save significant time and effort in manual processes.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts (23:09)
Leone reiterates the importance of the tight coupling of apps and agents and the significant value it brings to customers. The conversation concludes with a positive outlook on the future of autonomous workforces and the role of agents in driving business efficiency.
