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Agentic orchestration: Enterprise AI organizations have a deployment problem, not a platform problem — and most are calling chatbots agents
Agent orchestration in enterprises is increasingly consolidating onto model-provider platforms, with Anthropic's Claude being the current leader. This consolidation is driven by "model gravity," the appeal of advanced underlying models, and the expectation of reliable multi-step task execution. However, a significant gap exists between the ambition for sophisticated agent orchestration and the current reality. Most deployed "agents" function primarily as simple chatbot wrappers rather than true multi-step workflows. Enterprises are actively planning for a hybrid control plane, combining provider-native capabilities with their own external orchestration layers to mitigate vendor lock-in, which is their foremost concern. Investment is prioritizing workflow tooling to build more robust agent operations, followed by security and permissions. Real-time fiscal control over token burn remains a notable exception, with many organizations lacking immediate mechanisms to stop runaway agent costs. The ambition for orchestrated agents far outstrips their current multi-step execution capabilities. Building the orchestration layer is preceding the development of the complex agents it is intended to manage. This indicates a foundational stage where enterprises focus on establishing control and reliability before fully realizing agent potential.