By Mary Vue, VP of Marketing & Partnerships, Syncari
Why the Agentic Enterprise Conversation Matters
This week, my former colleagues at Workato announced Workato ONE, positioning it as the “agentic core” for enterprises. Having spent years at Workato watching the evolution of enterprise automation—and now leading marketing and partnerships at Syncari, I have a unique perspective on what they’ve built, and more importantly, what the market is missing in this conversation about the agentic enterprise strategy.
The timing couldn’t be more critical. Gartner named Agentic AI the #1 technology trend for 2025, with AI agents and AI-ready data foundations as the two fastest-advancing technologies on their AI Hype Cycle. Yet here’s the sobering reality: Gartner predicts that over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by 2027 due to escalating costs, unclear business value, or inadequate risk controls.
The Two Cores of an Agentic Enterprise
Workato ONE is an impressive achievement. Its ability to orchestrate workflows, deploy AI agents, and connect 1,000+ applications represents years of engineering excellence. The AgentX Apps are particularly well-executed.
But when Workato positions itself as the “agentic core,” what they’re really describing is the automation core—the execution layer where AI agents take action.
What’s being overlooked is the intelligence core: the data foundation for AI-ready enterprises that makes AI agents truly intelligent rather than just automated.
Automated vs. Agentic
- Automated: Executes predefined workflows, scripts, and moves data from A to B.
- Agentic: Makes intelligent decisions based on trusted master data, understands relationships, learns from patterns, and adapts to new situations.
The difference? Unified, trusted, real-time data quality management.
Why Your Data Foundation Is the Agentic Core
At Syncari, we’ve spent years building the data foundation for AI-ready enterprises. What we’ve actually created is the intelligence layer that makes true agent autonomy possible, what we call Agentic Master Data Management (MDM).
Gartner’s 2025 research reinforces this: “AI-ready data ensures datasets are optimized for AI applications, enhancing accuracy and efficiency.” They further warn: “There is no way to make data AI-ready in general or in advance, readiness depends entirely on how the data will be used.”
When an enterprise AI agent needs to make a decision, it must:
- Query customer, product, and transaction data
- Understand relationships between entities
- Apply historical context and patterns
- Trust that the data is accurate, complete, and real-time
Without this unified data quality management foundation, agents remain sophisticated automation bots—fast, but not intelligent.
The Intelligence + Execution Partnership
Enterprises require both cores:
- Syncari (Intelligence Core): Ensures access to unified, trustworthy, AI-ready data across all systems.
- Automation Platforms (Execution Core): Whether Workato, MuleSoft, Zapier, Boomi, or UiPath, these orchestrate workflows and actions.
Execution without intelligence is just faster manual work. Your competitive moat lies in the trusted data foundation.
As Gartner analyst Anushree Verma warns: “Most agentic AI projects right now are early stage experiments… This can blind organizations to the real cost and complexity of deploying AI agents at scale.”
The difference between experiments and scaled production? Data readiness.
The Hidden Cost of the “Agentic” Gold Rush
Today’s enterprises are often sold a fragmented stack:
- MDM platform for customer data ($200K+/yr)
- iPaaS integration/workflow tool ($150K+/yr)
- AI agent orchestration platform ($300K+/yr)
- Data quality tools ($100K+/yr)
- Governance platforms ($150K+/yr)
That’s $1M+ annually before deploying a single agent—each adding silos, data models, and governance rules. Gartner calls this “agent washing”—vendors rebranding old tools without true agentic AI capabilities.
Why Consolidation Is Inevitable
At Syncari, we see the artificial boundaries between MDM, iPaaS, and agent orchestration dissolving. Why? Because all solve the same fundamental problem: making enterprise data actionable.
- MDM: Single source of truth
- iPaaS: Moves and transforms that truth across systems
- Agent orchestration: Makes decisions based on that truth
Our Fortune 1000 customers are already consolidating into Syncari Agentic MDM™, saving $5M+ annually and cutting 100+ FTE overhead.
Why Starting with the Data Foundation Still Matters Most
You can’t govern what you can’t trust.
You can’t orchestrate what you can’t unify.
And you can’t build intelligent agents without trusted master data.
That’s why data foundations for AI-ready enterprises must be the first investment. Whether you consolidate or go best-of-breed, the data quality management layer is what separates true agentic enterprises from those doing faster automation.
The Real Question Enterprises Must Ask
As you evaluate your agentic enterprise strategy, don’t just ask: “How will my agents take action?”
Ask: “What intelligence will power their decisions?”
Automation platforms are replaceable. Your data foundation is your moat.
Looking Ahead: The Agentic Enterprise Stack
The agentic enterprise stack is crystallizing into four layers:
- Data Foundation Layer (Syncari): Unified data model, entity resolution, continuous data quality, real-time sync
- Intelligence Layer: LLMs, reasoning engines, decision models
- Execution Layer: Workflow orchestration (Workato, MuleSoft, UiPath)
- Experience Layer: Agent apps and interfaces (AgentX Apps, custom UIs)
The winners will choose the right intelligence core and integrate execution around it.
From Automation to Agentic Intelligence
At Syncari, we’re committed to being the data foundation for AI-ready enterprises, powering Syncari Agentic MDM™ with real-time governance and synchronization.
Because at the end of the day:
👉 An AI agent without trusted data isn’t agentic.
👉 It’s just automation with ambition.
Want to learn how Syncari can help you build a true agentic enterprise while consolidating your tech stack? Whether you’re using Workato, another orchestration platform, or looking to reduce platform sprawl, let’s talk about how unified, trusted data—and a converged platform approach—can make your agents truly intelligent. Schedule a demo where we’ll explore the real economics of agentic transformation.
Mary Vue leads Marketing and Partnerships at Syncari. Previously, she spent 4 years at Workato, where she was a Senior Director of Business Development and oversaw 75% of the global partnership team. Built and scaled all things partner related from the ground up, including ISVs, SIs, and GSIs. Built, developed, and managed Workato’s global partner programs, partner marketing, team of partner managers, and technology alliances. She’s passionate about helping enterprises understand the technology stack required for true digital transformation.
