Preparing for the Age of Agentic Automation: Reflections on IBM’s 2025 CDO Report

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The latest IBM CDO report (see above), paints a familiar picture. Organisations everywhere are pushing hard into AI, but many quietly admit that the ground beneath them isn’t quite firm enough to carry that ambition. The desire to modernise is strong; the pressure to move faster is stronger still. Yet somewhere between vision and execution sits a harder truth: leaders know what they want to achieve, but remain unsure whether their data, systems, and operating rhythms are truly ready to support it.

This dissonance is not new. Anyone who has worked through a large-scale transformation will recognise the feeling; the sense that the organisation’s aspiration is outpacing its ability to act. What stands out in this year’s IBM report is the candour. It is not the usual fervour around new models or hype cycles. It is the acknowledgement that reliable AI, in the broadest sense, rests on something older and more fundamental: trustworthy data, coherent processes, and the capability to act in real time without sacrificing control.

These are not fashionable ideas. They rarely make headlines. Yet they are the foundations on which every credible AI ambition must be built.

Agentic Automation: A Turning Point in How Organisations Operate

Agentic automation sits exactly at this pivotal point. It represents a shift from systems that merely respond to instructions, to systems that anticipate, decide, and orchestrate; often within fractions of a second. It is where automation grows up; where it becomes contextual, situational, and deeply aware of the operating environment around it.

In practical terms, it signals a future where:

• Teams are no longer drowning in repetitive tasks

• Workflows adapt to live conditions

• Decisions are driven by clean, trusted data

• Advisors are guided with timely, context-rich prompts

• Legacy systems are orchestrated with far greater coherence

However, that future isn’t guaranteed. It has to be earned. Agentic automation only delivers this new operating reality when the organisation’s data estate is genuinely ready: clean where it must be clean, connected where it matters, refreshed at the pace the business demands, and governed with the discipline that prevents unintended consequences. This is not the world of “just plug in the AI and hope for the best.” This is the world of preparation, architecture, and operational integrity.

Where TrustPortal Fits: Quiet Strength, Real Outcomes

At TrustPortal, this is the work we focus on. Not the glamorous, broad-brush headline end of AI, but the dependable scaffolding that lets everything else stand upright.

Our approach has always been about:

• Bringing order to complexity

• Creating clarity where there is noise

• Unifying processes across fragmented legacy estates

• Ensuring decisions happen in real time, with context

• Giving leaders a view they can rely on at the moment they need it

This is the unseen part of transformation — the discipline, the engineering, the strengthening of foundations. It is the craft that enables organisations to automate with confidence rather than caution. To deploy intelligence into the heart of operations without fear of losing visibility or control.

Agentic automation is powerful, but only when supported by a stable, truthful operational core. That is where TrustPortal makes the difference.

What This Means for Leaders Preparing for the Next Decade

For all the noise around AI, one truth hasn’t changed: progress belongs to those who prepare well. Technology evolves, expectations shift, but the fundamentals endure. Clean data. Coherent process. Clear governance. Real-time operational alignment.

In this new era of agentic intelligence, preparation means building a data and workflow foundation sturdy enough to let the organisation move at the pace it aspires to; safely, intelligently, and with purpose.

We leave the final word to IBM’s own closing sentiment, which captures the moment with admirable clarity:

“Don’t just collect data, deploy it on a mission.”

For organisations ready to put that mission into practice and turn intelligence into impact, and automation into a genuinely real-time operating advantage, the path begins with strengthening the foundations. The future will belong to those who do that work well.

The report contained here is the property of IBM and we have included in support of our response (c)IBM only.