The Promise of Agentic AI – Separating Hype from Reality’
Join us for an insightful panel discussion on "Promise of Agentic AI – Separating Hype from Reality", where industry experts will unpack the transformative potential of Agentic AI and distinguish fact from fiction. This engaging session will explore the following key topics:
Why the Surge in Interest? Understand the driving forces behind the growing momentum and excitement surrounding Agentic AI.
Defining Agentic AI: Clarify what Agentic AI is—and what it isn’t—to set clear expectations for its capabilities.
Real Business Value: Discover where Agentic AI is delivering tangible results for organizations, with real-world examples.
Hype vs. Reality: Identify the over-promised aspects of Agentic AI and gain a grounded perspective on its current limitations.
Client Success Stories: Hear from Sai, who will share firsthand experiences and specific client examples showcasing Agentic AI in action.
This panel is a must-attend for business leaders, technologists, and innovators eager to understand how Agentic AI can drive value while navigating its evolving landscape. Don’t miss this opportunity to separate hype from reality!
SPEAKERS:
About Donald Thompson, Microsoft:
Donald is currently a Distinguished Engineer Microsoft, following his recent tenure as Distinguished Eningeer at LinkedIn, where he oversaw the company's generative AI strategy, architecture, and technology. He has more than 35 years of hands-on experience as a technical architect and CTO, with an extensive background in designing and delivering innovative software and services on a large scale. In 2013, Donald co-founded Maana, which pioneered computational knowledge graphs and visual no-code/low-code authoring environments to address complex AI-based digital transformation challenges in Fortune 50 companies. During his previous 15 years at Microsoft, Donald started the Knowledge and Reasoning group within Microsoft's Bing division, where he innovated "Satori", an internet-scale knowledge graph constructed automatically from the web crawl. He co-founded a semantic computing incubation funded directly by Bill Gates, portions of which shipped as the SQL Server Semantic Engine. Additionally, he created Microsoft's first internet display ad delivery system and led numerous AI/ML initiatives in Microsoft Research across embedded systems, robotics, wearable computing, and privacy-preserving personal data services.
About Professor Bill Howe, University of Washington:
Professor Bill Howe is an Associate Professor in the Information School, Adjunct Associate Professor in Computer Science & Engineering and Electrical Engineering. Howe was Founding Associate Director of the UW eScience Institute where I remain a Senior Data Science Fellow. He currently directs the Urbanalytics group and co-directs the Center for Responsible AI Systems and Experiences. He is a co-founder of Urban@UW. Howe created a first MOOC on Data Science through Coursera, and led the creation of the UW Data Science Masters Degree, where he serves as its first Program Director and Faculty Chair. Howe also serves on the Steering Committee of the Center for Statistics in the Social Sciences.
Howe's group's research aims to make the techniques and technologies of data science broadly accessible, especially in the public sector where issues of equity, privacy, and compliance are paramount. Their methods are rooted in database models and languages, though we also study machine learning, visualization, HCI, and high-performance computing. They are an applied, systems-oriented group, frequently sourcing projects through collaborations in the physical, life, and social sciences. Their current interests are in algorithmic fairness, machine learning for heterogeneous data, and urban computing.
About Matt McKinney, ArcBlock:
Matt McKinney is Head of Growth at ArcBlock, driving go-to-market strategy for AI and decentralized platforms. He has hands-on experience launching products, building programs, and scaling growth for SaaS, blockchain, and AI companies. Matt focuses on practical growth tactics and data-driven execution to move products from concept to real adoption.
About Sai Suresh Medicharla, Quandrant:
Sai Suresh Medicharla is an Executive Vice President at Quadrant, responsible for growing our business through a portfolio of value-multiplying technology solutions. In collaboration with our engineering and delivery teams, Sai has conceptualized, helped build and launched several of our pioneering AI solutions. He brings extensive consulting experience in leading/managing large and complex client engagements for Global 100 as well as mid-market clients across banking, insurance, life sciences and other industries. Sai blends both strategic and pragmatic implementation perspectives to technology issues providing audiences with usable and actionable content and advice.
About Quadrant:
Quadrant Technologies is a premier Consulting and Technology Services firm with over 20 years of experience delivering solutions in Cloud, Application Services, Data Analytics, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. Headquartered in Redmond, WA, with 13 global delivery centers (including a major offshore hub in Hyderabad, India, and nearshore centers in Canada and Latin America), our 3,000+ experts serve Global 100 and mid-market clients across industries. Our offerings span end-to-end data and AI solutions, including ML model development, data annotation, cloud migration, modern app development, DevOps, and testing. We are a Microsoft Solutions Partner (Azure, Fabric, AI Foundry, Dynamics 365, .NET, SharePoint), an AWS Consulting & Marketplace Partner, and maintain strong partnerships with IBM, Google, Snowflake, and Databricks. Our portfolio includes:
Enplify – Generative AI-powered Enterprise Integration Framework
PureSight – AI-powered Data Quality Management
Qrafter.ai – AI-based Coding Copilot
QMigrator – Automated database migration to PostgreSQL on cloud
AI-powered talent hiring and data classification solutions
We bring deep expertise in Modern Data Services across AWS, Azure, Snowflake, Databricks, and Microsoft Fabric, where we are recognized as a Top 20 Premier Partner for Fabric implementations.