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Manish Sood is the founder and CEO of <\/em>Reltio<\/em><\/a>, a real-time context intelligence platform powering enterprise AI and innovation.<\/em><\/p>\n \u200bFor two years, the enterprise AI conversation has been obsessed with models and infrastructure\u2014the “plumbing” of the future. But this discussion is missing the point entirely, which is why there’s a widening gap between ambition and execution: Although 91% of leaders believe agentic AI is the future, only 38% feel ready to deploy it, according to 2025 Harvard Business Review research<\/a> sponsored by Reltio.<\/p>\n The missing link isn’t the algorithms or the machines\u2014it\u2019s that most AI systems lack the business context required to reason accurately. To bridge this gap, the next chapter of enterprise AI must move beyond simple workflows and embrace a dual architecture: a system of process and a system of context.<\/p>\n While the last generation of enterprise software perfected the system of record, context has emerged as a new opportunity. This shift toward the “systems of context” seeks to turn raw data from all of those siloed systems of record into the autonomous, decision-ready intelligence required for the age of agents.<\/p>\n A system of process defines how work gets done, encoding workflows, transactions and operating steps. These systems are essential for scaling repeatability and control. However, a system of context defines what’s true and how it all connects. It gives AI a unified representation of the concepts, entities and policies that matter to the business. Raw data tells an AI that a record exists; context tells the AI what that record means, how it relates to others and what action is allowed.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n AI initiatives remain stuck in pilot purgatory because the context layer is missing. Enterprise data remains fragmented across hundreds of systems, with customer, product and supplier data siloed and labeled differently.<\/p>\n This gap becomes dangerous as we move from generative AI to agentic AI. Generative AI can tolerate some imperfection because a human is usually in the loop to review a draft. Agents, however, don’t just generate content\u2014they take action, trigger workflows and coordinate across systems. When an agent acts on incomplete or contradictory information, it becomes a business liability.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Making data AI-ready\u2014clean, deduplicated and well-governed\u2014is a basic necessity. Context goes further: It’s multisource and interconnected. It adds the relationships and rules that enable AI to reason and rationalize cause-and-effect across the business, rather than just query isolated facts. It makes the business understandable to AI, not merely accessible.<\/p>\n For years, master data management (MDM) was framed as the effort to create a single source of truth. That mission remains important. In fact, it’s more important than ever. But in the era of agentic AI, a single source of truth is no longer the finish line. It’s the foundation. The next step is to create a system of context: a living, connected, trusted representation of the business that AI can interpret and act on. That isn’t a rejection of MDM. It’s an elevation of it. First, enterprises had to unify data. Now they must complement it with unified meaning.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Business context doesn’t live in flat tables\u2014it lives in relationships: customer to household, supplier to product or contract to obligation. AI can only perform the kind of multihop reasoning enterprises expect when that context is represented in a form it can traverse, such as a graph-based approach.<\/p>\n When you combine a system of process with a system of context, enterprise AI becomes practical. A procurement agent shouldn’t just read a supplier file\u2014it should understand supplier risk and contractual constraints before recommending an alternative source. A change to customer data shouldn’t remain trapped in one application\u2014it should harmonize consistently across the business.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Agents excel at crunching large volumes of information quickly, multitasking and taking orders on what to do next. They can learn and improve their own processes over time. The agentic promise for knowledge workers is immense\u2014they’ll transform how work gets done and at a scale and speed never before imagined.<\/p>\n They can\u2019t, however, fulfill on those promises without a trusted roadmap of an enterprise or the full context of how it operates. In today\u2019s large enterprises, that could mean traversing hundreds of data systems and thousands of different processes. That\u2019s why organizations that build a singular system of context and a unified system of process will win the agentic era. <\/p>\n Forbes Technology Council<\/u><\/a> is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?<\/u><\/em><\/a><\/p>\nThe Context Problem<\/h2>\n
Moving AI Out Of Pilot Purgatory<\/h2>\n
Beyond “AI-Ready” Data<\/h2>\n
The Power Of Relationships<\/h2>\n
AI Needs To Understand Business Reality\u200b\u200b<\/h2>\n
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