I still remember the long nights spent with the very first SimCity: captivated by how strategic choices of roads, buildings, and resources could bring a city to life, or plunge it into chaos. Each decision shaped a living ecosystem where individual parts formed a dynamic whole. The thrill wasn’t in clicking every citizen, it was in crafting the rules of the game so that unexpected life could emerge. Years later, my daughter discovered the same joy. A single tweak could make the whole ecosystem bloom or collapse.
That memory returns every time I sit down in a concert hall. Each musician on stage is a virtuoso who plays their instrument far better than the conductor ever will. The conductor doesn’t even play an instrument. Imagine getting paid just to wave a stick! Yet somehow that stick transforms individual brilliance into magical symphonic power under the composer’s vision.
Agentic AI era
Today, I see this same magic emerging in the agentic AI era, and organisations face a very similar dynamic. Specialised AI agents, LLMs, knowledge graphs etc. are the new virtuosos in our orchestra. They forecast trends we can’t yet see, solve problems beyond human scale, and innovate at speeds that defy imagination. Our challenge is to orchestrate them. By blending agentic AI, knowledge graphs, and enterprise architecture (EA 4.0), we can create intelligent, adaptive organisations that thrive in a world of exponential change.
Forward-thinking companies are already embracing this conductor’s mindset. Walmart exemplifies this approach perfectly. They’re building internal orchestration frameworks to coordinate thousands of AI agents, as if they’ve built the SimCity roads and zoning for their AI city – setting common protocols and guardrails, so that innovation can flourish organically. In other words, they focus on establishing clear guidelines and boundaries, setting the ‘rules of the game’ rather than micro-managing every move. Our role is to clearly define the purpose, the framework, and the rules, to remain in control of the overall direction and ethical boundaries. Human control is about holding the baton, not playing every note.
As an enterprise architect at heart, I’m genuinely excited about how these shifts will reshape our discipline. As Jesper Lowgren brilliantly phrased it, enterprise architecture is shifting “from scaling productivity to scaling intelligence”.
In the next posts, I’ll explore how to become the conductors our new AI orchestras need. So stay tuned for: Part 2 – How AI evolves from passive tool to active partner?