The AI Agent Playbook: Stop refereeing AI. Start leading it.

Welcome to The AI Agent Playbook - a leadership series from Tray.ai.

Each edition, you’ll hear directly from Tray.ai leadership on what we’re seeing in the field, how enterprises are adopting AI agents, and what leaders should be thinking about as AI reshapes business and IT.

This time, I want to talk about something I see CIOs struggling with firsthand: AI is more than a technology adoption challenge. It’s turning into an operational nightmare.

Let’s get into it.

AI is here. But most enterprises aren’t ready.

AI is everywhere. Your CRM is predicting churn, your finance platform is flagging anomalies, and your IT tools are suggesting fixes before problems arise. At first glance, this seems like progress.

But I keep hearing the same thing in my conversations with IT leaders: instead of AI making things easier, it’s creating more complexity.

Every application is rolling out its own AI model, making its own decisions in isolation. None of these systems are talking to each other, and IT teams are left refereeing the chaos.

Instead of driving AI strategy, IT leaders are stuck: Managing conflicting AI outputs across departments Patching security and compliance gaps AI is creating Trying to make sense of siloed AI decisions that don’t align Having to govern multiple applications across a wide range of vendors

AI should be freeing up IT, not burying them in more work. But right now, too many enterprises are reacting to AI instead of proactively orchestrating it at scale.

Disconnected AI = Bad decisions

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Deploying AI successfully isn’t an AI problem, it’s an integration problem.

Your CRM is predicting churn but your sales team isn’t seeing the same risks in their pipeline. Your finance platform is flagging anomalies but procurement already approved the transaction. Your IT tools are suggesting fixes but security policies won’t allow automated remediation.?

This is more than frustrating. It’s a governance failure.

Without a unified AI strategy, companies are risking:

• Conflicting AI-driven business decisions
• Security vulnerabilities from fragmented AI models
• Compliance failures as AI pulls from ungoverned data

Right now, most enterprises are focused on adding AI to their stack. But the ones getting this right are focused on integrating and orchestrating AI from day one.

If you’re leading AI strategy, here’s where to start

If you’re a CIO, you have a mandate to implement AI. But you also need to ensure AI is actually working for the business. That means stepping back from reactive AI adoption and putting a real strategy in place.?

Here’s how to start:

? Map out where AI is already embedded across your enterprise. Most companies are using more AI than they realize—it’s just not connected.

? Establish clear governance before AI decisions start conflicting. If you don’t set the rules now, you’ll be stuck enforcing them later.

? Prioritize AI orchestration. AI can’t drive results if it’s siloed inside individual applications. The real competitive advantage comes from AI that works across your entire business.

The companies that get this right will find success with their AI deployments. The ones that don’t? They’ll spend the next few years refereeing disconnected AI models.

How are you thinking about AI orchestration today? Would love to hear how other leaders are approaching this—drop a comment, let’s discuss.