Monday.com bets on deployment experts to turn AI agents into real returns

Enterprises have embraced AI for everyday tasks, but turning autonomous agents into measurable business returns is proving far harder. The bottleneck is no longer the technology but the organizational change needed to rewire processes around it.

Software providers are responding by pairing their platforms with hands-on guidance. Since monday.com Ltd. relaunched as an AI work platform, its customers have asked less about what the technology can do and more about how to make it pay off, according to Eran Zinman (pictured), co-founder and co-chief executive officer of monday.com.

“I think what’s hard is the actual business change you have to go through,” Zinman said. “Eventually companies want to see return on investment. Tokens cost a lot of money. You want to see a real impact on your business.”

Zinman spoke with theCUBE’s Rebecca Knight at monday.com’s Elevate event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the challenge of turning autonomous agents into measurable business returns. (* Disclosure below.)

Putting autonomous agents to work starts at home

Before asking customers to change, the company tested the change on itself. Under an initiative called Customer Zero, employees set aside their regular jobs for a week and competed to build agents, Zinman explained.

“We said we’re going to stop the company for one week. We literally have done that. Nobody was doing their regular job for a week,” Zinman said. “Everybody was building agents.”

The exercise produced more than 3,600 agents, and about 2,000 are still running, according to Zinman. That playbook now underpins monday Frontier, a new organization that combines managed services and deployment engineers to help customers find bottlenecks and launch AI projects within weeks.

“Adopting AI really requires expertise. I know how hard it is because we experienced ourselves that you have this amazing technology, but how do you actually use it?” Zinman said.

The company is also rebranding as simply monday, reflecting a product built around people and agents sharing one workspace. Zinman rejects predictions that AI will push humans out of the workforce, insisting accountability stays with people.

“AI will never take responsibility for what you’re doing in your business,” Zinman said. “And you need people in the loop. I feel the best combination to adopt AI is people and agents working together where AI is not replacing people; it’s empowering people.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of monday.com’s Elevate event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for monday.com’s Elevate event. Neither monday.com, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE