Ep 29: Businesses Have No Idea What's Coming With AI Agents | Patrick Sostmann

Patrick Sostmann is General Manager of Alibaba.com in Europe, where he works closely with buyers and suppliers and is seeing firsthand how agentic AI is changing the future of B2B commerce.

Through Alibaba.com's AI-powered platform Accio, Patrick is witnessing a shift from AI simply providing information to AI taking over entire business workflows, from market research and supplier comparisons to sourcing and customer follow-ups.

But he believes the biggest challenge is not technology. It is management's ability to identify the right workflows, establish accountability, and determine where AI can create measurable value.

In this episode of Digital Storm Weekly, Patrick explains how businesses can move beyond experimenting with AI and start integrating AI agents into their operations.

He discusses:

• Why AI agents are transforming business operations from answering questions to executing entire workflows
• How agentic AI can reduce supplier sourcing timelines from five to seven days to overnight
• Why management, accountability, and trust remain the biggest barriers to adoption
• How AI agents are changing the way SMEs and solo entrepreneurs build and operate businesses
• Why human involvement remains essential in supplier negotiations, payments, and strategic decisions
• Why businesses should master one AI workflow before expanding automation across their organization

Patrick's central message is clear:

The future of AI adoption is not about automating everything at once. It is about choosing the right workflow, proving its value, establishing human oversight, and scaling step by step.

For business leaders, the challenge is to rethink how work gets done and understand where AI agents can deliver real operational value.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here

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