What CEOs Are Saying: The Latest on Agents and AI
Let's see what the leadership of Okta, Concentrix, and Klaviyo had to say last week.
Everyone in tech is talking about “agents,” AI programs that don’t just generate text and images but that actually go do complex tasks on their own.
If “generative AI” was basically supercharged autocomplete, “agentic AI” is about delegation. A good agent can go off and file tickets, send emails, update CRMs, and even make decisions without a human in the loop. And it can increasingly handle multiple steps across many different platforms and environments.
As cool as this sounds, for CEOs of companies in this space, the rise of agentic AI is causing problems. The big one is that interest across customers is highly variable, but investors want to see the payoff now.
The era of software as tools that you log into and we expect humans to use is over. —Andrew Bialecki
Last week gave us a useful snapshot of these dynamics. Concentrix, Okta, and Klaviyo, all in or adjacent to this space, each held major investor events. And each CEO had to balance the same question of where the AI hype ends and where tangible performance begins…
Concentrix: Spending Ahead of Demand
Concentrix is a giant services firm with thousands of people running customer support desks and back-office operations for other companies. It’s exactly the kind of business AI should reshape.
But Concentix’s Q3 numbers aren’t pretty: Revenue is up 4% to $2.48B, but earnings per share missed. The stock dropped double digits. CEO Chris Caldwell admitted that “margins were below plan in the quarter,” explaining that almost 40% of new contracts include their AI platform - but they built too much too fast. There was overcapacity to serve the portion of clients who were “excited” about AI, and now they’re paying for it in profitability.
For CEOs, it’s a reminder of how dangerous it can be to get out ahead of customer demand.
Caldwell tried to calm nerves by saying the company had a “line of sight to modest sequential improvement,” but that’s not what Wall Street wanted to hear.
Okta: Customers Aren’t Buying the Pitch
Okta runs the identity systems that let people (and now bots) log into software securely. At their investor summit, CEO Todd McKinnon declared that now “AI really means agents,” and that “when you break down what makes agent security real and valid and valuable, it’s identity security.” Accordingly, Okta rolled out a new “Identity Security Fabric” to govern these digital workers.
Then came a notable exchange, live in the presentation.
During the Q&A, analyst Patrick Colville of Scotiabank told McKinnon:
I’ve spoken with about 12 customers here at Oktane in the last 24 hours, and not a single one said they came to learn about agentic AI security.
Colville wondered, if people weren’t there to hear about agentic AI security, “is this a 2026 thing, or maybe even 2027?”
McKinnon didn’t try to argue that the analyst was wrong. He shifted the focus, noting that customers are here for the broader product portfolio (consolidation, governance, access management) and Okta can monetize that now. The “agentic” story, he said, is real but will take time. CFO Brett Tighe backed him up, noting it’s like past product cycles: Governance hit the numbers only after years of investment.
McKinnon did leave CEOs with a telling stat showing that adoption is happening, but control is lagging badly. “Over 90%… have agents in production. 10%… [are] confident they’re actually governing the agents.” That gap - between adopting agents and having real control of them - is exactly where risk lives. CEOs in this space should expect their boards to start asking which side of that ratio they’re on.
Klaviyo: Betting on the Agent Future
Klaviyo, an email and marketing automation platform for e-commerce brands, is a younger, smaller company than the other two here. At their first investor day, CEO Andrew Bialecki went all in on agents:
The era of software as tools that you log into and we expect humans to use is over… for Klaviyo, we believe those days are numbered.
Bialecki also pushed speed as the key leadership lesson: “In the age of AI, speed — the teams that move the fastest are the ones that are rewarded.” That urgency explains why Klaviyo is leaning into “Marketing Agent” and “Customer Agent,” products designed to actually run campaigns, not just provide dashboards.
There’s chatter everywhere about an AI bubble. Listening to these three presentations back-to-back, you can see why. The technology is promising, but the near-term business case is still a little messy.
All three of these CEOs are in the same bind, dealing with impatient investors and cautious customers even as the agentic future crashes into present reality.
CEOs should expect to be navigating that tension for a while.