Agentic AI is pushing companies to rethink how work gets done. Shifting the focus from isolated technology projects to broader business process redesign, according to Lauren Wortmann, NTT DATA Managing Director: Applications, Middle East and Africa.
Wortmann said the rise of the “agentic enterprise” is forcing organisations to take a fresh look at value chains that have long been slowed down by fragmented data, disconnected systems and heavy human input.
From Siloed Systems To Smarter Workflows Through Agentic AI
In areas such as marketing, for example, processes from lead identification to customer conversion have often operated in silos. Data sits across different platforms, teams rely on manual follow-ups, and businesses struggle to act at the right time with the right offer.
With agentic AI and large language models, she said, that barrier is beginning to change.
“Tech is no longer our limiting factor anymore. We really need to be thinking very differently around what technology can enable in our organisations,” Wortmann said.
Wortmann made her remarks during an event in Nairobi. NTT DATA announced that it is expanding its Salesforce services in East Africa. This will help businesses improve client engagement, data management, AI-enabled insights and revenue growth.
The new offering builds on NTT DATA’s existing applications services in East Africa. It shows the company’s commitment to improving its applications capabilities across the Middle East and Africa region. It follows last year’s acquisition of EXAH, a Salesforce Consulting Partner and AI implementation specialist in South Africa. EXAH strengthened the company’s expertise in the region and ability to deliver locally relevant Salesforce solutions backed by global scale.
NTT DATA: Business Value Must Come First
According to Wortmann, the real opportunity is not simply adding AI into existing systems. It means stepping back to define the business problem or opportunity first.
She said companies need to understand the customer journey or business process they want to improve. Then map the right technology against it. In financial services and other sectors, this could mean redesigning how customers are identified, engaged, served and offered products on a more personal basis.
For years, businesses have discussed one-to-one customer engagement as an ideal. However, they struggle to achieve it because systems were not connected, data remained siloed, and teams lacked the capacity to manage engagement at scale.
Wortmann said agentic AI changes that equation by giving businesses more power to connect data, automate steps and redesign processes around clear outcomes.
“This is not about technology for technology’s sake. You’ve got to start with the business value,” she said.
The shift, she added, is now about asking what outcome a business wants to deliver, then rebuilding the process around that goal.
