On this page, you’ll find a curated collection of key takeaways, event photos, video highlights, and analyst insights that capture the spirit and substance of this roundtable event. We invite you to dive in and experience the bold, unfiltered thinking that defines HFS Research. A full highlight report is also available, offering deeper insights into the key takeaways and in-depth discussions from the roundtable—read the full report here.

Highlights from this HFS Executive Roundtable

HFS Research, in collaboration with Akkodis, convened enterprise leaders and transformation experts for an intimate roundtable exploring the realities and readiness of agentic AI. As autonomous systems promise to redefine enterprise productivity, participants examined the widening gap between the hype of self-directed AI agents and the current limitations of organizational trust, governance, and infrastructure. The discussion unpacked what’s achievable today versus what remains aspirational, emphasizing the need for sharper strategy, stronger data foundations, and cultural alignment to truly scale agentic AI responsibly and effectively.

What we heard

Akkodis and HFS delved deep into how enterprises can move beyond the hype and make meaningful progress with AI. Nearly 20 cross-industry leaders joined the conversation, sharing candid perspectives on their AI journeys—what’s working, where they’re struggling, and how success is starting to take shape. Here’s what we heard in the room:

  • Be Hopeful but hard-nosed. Leaders from leading financial firms called agentic AI “hopeful” and “already delivering value in parts,” but flagged overpromised autonomy in regulated contexts and demanded trust, control, and explainability. 
  • Recognize Pragmatic patterns. A large telco is experimenting with AI and voice-native tools as a master interface to coordinate multiple agents—only to encounter real questions about authorization delegation, agent-to-agent communication, and marketplace versus in-house orchestration. 
  • Reality checks from production. Practitioners shared live examples from payments tracking and code modernization, where staged reasoning and engineered workflows (not a “just add LLM” button) separated success from slide decks. 
  • Workforce bifurcation. From Akkodis’ vantage point, with their customers, AI is simultaneously a monumental opportunity and a threat to talent markets; they’re co-investing (e.g., with Salesforce) to harmonize labor and agents at scale—even as mid-management fear becomes a bottleneck. 
  • Agentic washing is rampant. The group was aligned on a practical layering—from task agents and co-pilots to process agents, multi-agent systems, and beyond—and cautioned that much of what is labeled as “agentic” today is often merely more intelligent RPA or chat-fronted retrieval.

Scenes from the Roundtable

Picture1
Picture2
Picture3
Picture4
Picture5
Picture6
Picture7
Picture8
Picture9
Picture10
Picture11
Picture12
Picture13
Picture14
Picture15

Executive Interviews: Perspectives That Push the Conversation Further

We captured three dynamic interviews that continue the roundtable’s bold conversation. 

Agentic AI in CPG: From Buzzword to Hyperpersonalization

Ashish Gupta, CFO of Reckitt North America, explores how AI, particularly agentic AI, is already reshaping the CPG industry. The biggest shift: hyperpersonalization that targets consumers at the moment of intent while optimizing media spend so brands show up where customers actually want to see them.

From Hype to Hope: The AI Culture Shift

Mike Small, President of Akkodis North America, explains why scaling AI isn’t just about tools or productivity; it’s about transforming culture. He outlines how leaders can transform organizations from a culture of fear to one of hope by embracing technology, investing in training and development, and demystifying AI for every role. 

Agentic Marketing in Medtech

Cristopher Kuehl, VP of AI, Data Science & CX at Akkodis, explains how a medtech company shifted from personal productivity pilots to revenue generation by running end-to-end marketing with agile workflows. Using continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) as the entry point, the team orchestrates social campaigns, drip emails, and targeted outreach across Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok—expanding beyond Type 1 diabetes to lifestyle, athletic, aging, and weight-management segments. 

What’s next?

The conversation around agentic AI and enterprise readiness is just beginning—and it’s clear that progress demands both bold experimentation and disciplined execution. If your organization is navigating how to scale AI responsibly, strengthen data foundations, or redefine operating models for autonomy, let’s continue the dialogue. Together, we can turn pragmatic insights into purposeful action.

Sign In

Sign up for a free
research account

With the exception of our Horizons reports, most of our research is available for free on our website. Sign up for a free account and start realizing the power of insights now.

Digests/Newsletters: Overviews of the latest news, insight, and research by HFS.

HFS Events: Exclusive invitations to HFS webinars, roundtables, and summits, bringing together key industry stakeholders focused on major innovations impacting business operations.

By registering you agree to our privacy policy.

I hereby consent that HFS Research can process my personal data.

Premium Access

Our premium subscription gives enterprise clients access to our complete library of proprietary research, direct access to our industry analysts, and other benefits.

Contact us at [email protected] for more information on premium access.

Help

If you are looking for help getting in touch with someone from HFS, please click the chat button to the bottom right of your screen to start a conversation with a member of our team.

[email protected]

Error: Contact form not found.