Sebastian Denef: Scaling Agentic AI from Berlin to the World

What this episode covers

On this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL sits down with Sebastien Denef, CEO and Co-Founder of AGENTS.inc, a company building intelligent agent platforms for enterprises—and helping leaders move from “AI curiosity” to AI capability at scale. This is not another ChatGPT-is-cool conversation. This is the episode for executives and founders who want to understand what’s really coming next: agentic AI architectures that don’t just generate answers… they execute outcomes. From automation to autonomy: the real upgrade Sebastien breaks it down in plain language: an AI agent is software you can assign a task to—and it will handle that task autonomously. That’s the step change. Compared to older automation layers, we’re now able to increase autonomy dramatically because we finally have two things we didn’t have before: powerful AI models oceans of usable data RPA helped move documents from point A to point B. AI agents do something far more valuable: they understand what’s inside the document, extract what matters, evaluate it, and push the right actions into the right systems. That wasn’t realistically possible before. Now, it is. Why “AI-ready” is a myth (and what real readiness looks like) One of Sebastien’s most important messages is a reality check for enterprises: using ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot doesn’t make you AI-ready. It makes you AI-aware. Real readiness means building the infrastructure, workflows, and operating model that allows AI agents to deliver business value across silos—without breaking governance, security, or human accountability. Because once you deploy agents at scale, you don’t want to “chat” with them all day. You’d drown in messages. What you need is a control interface—a way to steer, supervise, and direct these tireless digital employees. “Computers that work while you sleep” Sebastien offers a powerful mental model: think of AI agents as computers that keep working after you log off. A tireless workforce running tasks in the background—processing, interpreting, executing—while humans focus on judgment, creativity, and decision-making. And he’s not shy about the scale of change. He estimates that more than 70% of the work people do today can be automated, and that this will reshape entire industries—especially those with large workforces built around repetitive knowledge tasks. Underhyped, not overhyped While the world debates whether AI is hype, Sebastien takes the opposite stance: agentic AI is underhyped. The real impact won’t just show up in corporate operations. It will touch everyday life too—education, job hunting, buying a home, grocery shopping, and even how we plan our weekends. In his view, we’re only seeing the first chapter of what’s possible. The winners: technology + collaboration Sabine and Sebastien explore why the winners in this new era won’t simply be the companies with the best model. They’ll be the ones who master: scalable architectures across silos collaboration between teams and functions and the ability to operationalize AI responsibly Because agentic AI doesn’t live in a lab. It lives inside workflows, systems, and people. And that’s where transformation becomes real. If you’re a leader wondering what comes after copilots, dashboards, and experiments—this episode is your blueprint for the next era of enterprise AI: autonomous execution, orchestrated at scale, led with intent.