Agentic AI governance helps midsized distributors decide which tasks software agents can handle and which require human oversight. For lean IT teams, automating more work also means checking the data and rules behind those decisions.
Infor (US) LLC is embedding industry-specific AI agents into its applications as businesses move AI into day-to-day operations. One century-old truck parts distributor got there by tying every new capability back to a single business system, according to Steve McEnany (pictured), senior vice president of Midwest Wheel Companies.
“I really believe in trying to stick with one foundation,” he said. “If you’ve got one place to start, even if we do reach out and bring in a third-party tool, we still want to tie it back to the Infor system because we want one point of reference.”
McEnany spoke with theCUBE Research’s Christophe Bertrand and co-host Alison Kosik at Infor Velocity Week, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed agentic AI governance, Midwest Wheel’s single-system approach and how AI fits into its daily operations. (* Disclosure below.)
Agentic AI governance starts with checking the math
Moving to the cloud took server management and software updates off Midwest Wheel’s lean IT team’s hands, freeing the company to build in-demand tools in just a few weeks. It also added AI features, including a product recommender in order entry and automation that scans emailed PDF invoices into the system, McEnany explained.
“I don’t want to just know that there’s a problem; I want it to fix the problem,” he said. “That agentic AI, agentic future, having the agent have the rules of how we want to do things and then have it say, ‘This is what we would always do for this. Let’s just fix it.'”
A human should stay in the loop for anything that touches cash or accounts, according to McEnany. He also recalled a time when a second AI tool spotted that a companywide sales report card, built with AI, didn’t add up. Infor argues that industry context is part of the fix, pointing to research showing that off-the-shelf AI falls short for two out of three businesses.
“There is governance that has to happen. You can’t assume the data’s going to be right,” he said. “The prompts have to be written correctly.”
Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Infor Velocity Week:
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Infor Velocity Week. Neither Infor, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)