AI is evolving faster than most businesses can plan for… and leaders are feeling the pressure. From Agentic AI to multi-agent ecosystems, the pace of change is relentless. The smartest companies aren’t chasing hype; they’re asking smarter questions to ensure their vendors are equipped to navigate the uncertainty ahead.
Here are five questions every company should be asking their AI vendors right now:
1. Are You Investing in Innovation That Matters to Us?
Innovation isn’t just a buzzword – it’s a line item representing sustained R&D prioritisation. For example, three of the major global tech players each invested 12-15% of revenue last year. That’s billions dedicated to future-ready capabilities like AI agent orchestration and data infrastructure.
But strong R&D alone doesn’t guarantee relevance. Innovation must be shaped by real-world buyer needs, not just technical ambition. Look for vendors who co-develop with buyers, offer executive sponsorship, and give you a voice in their roadmap.
Ask your vendors:
- How does your annual R&D investment shape your 12-24 month AI roadmap?
- How has buyer feedback shaped your roadmap
- How would we be involved in innovation cycles?
The best partners co-innovate with you to shape the market, not chase it. Without clear, ongoing commitment to buyer-centric innovation, vendors risk falling behind in an AI landscape that is evolving every quarter.
2. What’s Your Strategy for Multi-Agent Interoperability?
We’re approaching a fundamental shift in how software operates. Picture your AI-powered customer service agent seamlessly coordinating in real time with logistics, billing, and even third-party agents – each on different platforms, working together without friction across the boundaries of your organisation. These multi-agent ecosystems represent the next natural evolution of the agentic era.
To support this shift, open standards like A2A (Agent-to-Agent) and MCP (Model Context Protocol) are emerging. These protocols enable agents to share context, communicate securely, and collaborate across platforms, just as APIs once revolutionised cloud integration. Crucially, they pave the way for framework-agnostic multi-agent systems, allowing AI applications to scale efficiently while maintaining flexibility and ease of integration.
Ask your vendors:
- Are your AI agents built for open, interoperable ecosystems – or locked into silos?
- How do your systems coordinate with external platforms and partners?
- Which interoperability frameworks or multi-agent ecosystems are you actively contributing to?
As AI becomes more autonomous and interconnected, the ability of your technology stack to work well with others will define its strategic value. Vendors who embrace openness and form community partnerships to help shape these standards, will position you to tap into broader innovation, reduce integration costs, and avoid vendor lock-in.
3. How Do You Ensure Trust, Control, and Data Governance from Day One?
As AI agents take on more autonomous decision-making, oversight becomes essential. Without visibility and clear governance, the risk of unintended consequences and non-compliance grows – especially as agents start to operate across organisational, platform, and regulatory boundaries.
Vendors must provide real-time observability into agent behaviour and outcomes, alongside robust frameworks for responsible AI and ethical design. Just as critical is grounding – ensuring AI agents reference trusted, real-time data to deliver accurate, relevant decisions. If agents act on outdated or biased data, risk compounds.
And with regulation ramping up globally, from the EU AI Act to Australia’s Digital Platform rules, compliance must be proactive, not reactive.
Ask your vendors:
- How do you monitor, audit, and explain AI agent behaviour?
- What frameworks guide your responsible AI and ethical design practices?
- How are you preparing for current and future AI regulations?
- Who owns the data used and generated by AI agents – and how is it used for training or decisioning?
The best vendors treat trust, control, and data governance as foundational – embedding transparency and guardrails into both their architecture and their culture. Ensuring you can scale safely, adapt quickly, and remain in control, as expectations and regulations evolve.
4. How Do You Support Organisational Readiness for AI?
Many AI initiatives fail not because the technology falls short, but because organisations, and the people who will use the tools, aren’t prepared. Most companies still lack the structures, processes, and cross-functional teams needed for AI-ready operations. Resistance and confusion set in, especially when jobs feel threatened by AI.
The right vendor recognises that transformation is cultural as much as technical. They coach leaders on how to reorganise for speed, guide middle managers on new workflows, and equip frontline staff to work with AI confidently and ethically – instead of just training a handful of prompt engineers.
Ask your vendors:
- What support do you offer for workforce upskilling across functions and levels?
- How do you help manage the cultural and ethical shift to Agentic AI?
- What DevOps and engineering practices do you enable to help us scale AI effectively?
For Boards, these aren’t operational concerns – they’re strategic imperatives. Talent and retention equal competitive advantage, and the organisations who win won’t just adopt Agentic AI. They’ll bring their people with them.
5. How Easy Is It For Us to Adapt When the Market Changes?
In this environment, the real risk isn’t moving too fast – it’s locking yourself into systems that can’t evolve. The last thing you want is to spend two years implementing a solution that’s obsolete by the time it launches.
Vendors who offer adaptability as a core design principle will help you stay relevant, resilient, and ready for whatever comes next.
Ask your vendors:
- Do you provide industry-specific templates, low-code/no-code tools, or pre-built components to accelerate deployment?
- How easily can your platform adapt to shifting standards or emerging AI capabilities – can we reconfigure, scale, or pivot without rebuilding from scratch?
The smartest technology investments today are built around agility, modularity, and speed to value. This gives your teams the power to respond to market signals without waiting on lengthy development cycles or third-party dependencies, so you can change direction rapidly when needed.
The goal isn’t perfection on day one. It’s measurable progress that compounds. The organisations that thrive in this AI era will treat every launch as a learning opportunity – and every failure as fuel for iteration. Vendors who support this mindset are the ones who will help you move faster, with less risk, and more resilience.
Closing Thoughts
Choosing the right technology partner today isn’t about predicting the future perfectly. It’s about backing vendors who are building for uncertainty – who understand that agility, interoperability, and responsible innovation are the new non-negotiables.
As leaders, your role isn’t to know every technical detail. It’s to ask the questions that reveal whether your partners are genuinely prepared for what’s next – whatever that may be.
When change is constant and uncertainty is guaranteed, your questions – not your predictions – will determine your success. Because the future isn’t waiting. And neither should you.
Hannah Trimby is a recognised leader in the application of artificial intelligence across enterprise transformation, customer strategy, and digital architecture. As Salesforce’s Chief Customer Technology Advisor, she helps executive teams navigate the shift to responsible agentic AI.
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