NTT Data dives into agentic systems

NTT Data has launched a new enterprise-grade Smart AI Agent Ecosystem designed to deliver assured outcomes across industry verticals, while enabling legacy systems to participate in the evolution of agentic AI. The announcement includes a patented plug-in that converts existing bots into autonomous intelligent agents, alongside an expanded alliance network aimed at offering more targeted and scalable AI services.

“The rapid evolution of AI presents both immense opportunities and challenges for businesses,” says Yutaka Sasaki, president and CEO of NTT Data Group. “At NTT Data, we have developed the comprehensive capabilities needed to guide our clients through these transformative times and empower them to shape their future with the power of AI.”

The company has already deployed hundreds of smart AI agents across client environments, supporting decision-making and automation in areas such as healthcare, automotive manufacturing, finance, logistics, and marketing. In each case, agents are designed to move beyond task execution toward intelligent orchestration – analysing regulatory risks, validating insurance claims, or building adaptive psychographic profiles for customer engagement.

NTT Data becomes the latest to join the accelerating agentic AI bandwagon – now moving with such force that even legacy bots are being pulled along. The company’s approach reflects a broader shift in enterprise AI from standalone tools to fully integrated ecosystems. The trend first began to emerge clearly at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year. Reporting from the event at the time, Arthur Goldstuck wrote that there was a growing divide between companies treating AI as product features and those – particcent ularly in Europe and Asia – embedding intelligent agents into the foundational infrastructure of devices, networks, and services.

NTT Data’s strategy aligns with the latter, offering what the company calls “assured outcome” solutions: packages that combine domain-specific agents with deployment services, platform integration, and ongoing support. Abhijit Dubey, CEO of NTT Data, says the aim is to develop new capabilities that can take initiative, make decisions and collaborate with humans in entirely new ways.

A modular framework for agentic AI

The Smart AI Agent Ecosystem includes multiple layers of service and tooling:

• Managed agentic services to build, deploy, and scale custom solutions
• Embedded agents addressing both industry-specific and cross-functional needs
• A platform with integrated tools, language model access, and a marketplace for third-party agents
• AI-ready infrastructure spanning public and private cloud, network services, and cybersecurity
• Governance, compliance, and risk management under a “responsible by design” principle

This modular ecosystem is intended to support clients at different levels of AI maturity. It is complemented by services such as structured readiness assessments, multi-agent orchestration, and integration with hyperscaler AI platforms.

Pankaj Shah, VP and chief information and digital officer of Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, says the company is leveraging NTT Data’s approach to explore pro-code and low-code agentic AI experiences, and multi-agent models tailored to specific business goals.

Alliances to accelerate adoption

NTT Data is expanding its technology alliances, including a new strategic agreement with OpenAI to build industry-specific generative AI solutions. The company will establish a dedicated OpenAI Centre of Excellence to support these efforts globally.

In addition, partnerships with emerging providers like Rafay Systems and Kore.ai are enhancing the delivery of secure infrastructure and GenAI-powered service desk operations. These alliances extend NTT Data’s platform capabilities while offering clients more flexibility in tool selection and deployment strategy.

Retrofitting the past for an agentic future

One of the more notable components of the announcement is a patented plug-in designed to convert legacy Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots into intelligent agents. This addresses a critical challenge for enterprises burdened by technical debt: how to evolve existing automation investments without discarding them.

It’s essentially a neural net for a fax machine – a smart workaround for a very modern problem. The plug-in upgrades previously rules-based bots to operate autonomously, make context-aware decisions, and comply with organisational policies on privacy and security. In a recent article on Qlik Connect 2025, Arthur Goldstuck said legacy data systems are being reconfigured to meet the demands of AI through open, scalable frameworks like the Open Lakehouse.

In both cases, the focus is on future-proofing infrastructure: making it possible for AI agents to operate effectively across older environments while delivering the speed, flexibility, and scalability required by modern workloads.

From agents to ecosystems

NTT DATA’s agentic AI strategy reflects a growing industry consensus that the future of AI lies in integrated ecosystems, not isolated applications. While US-based companies continue to roll out product-centric AI enhancements, enterprises across other regions are increasingly investing in systems where intelligent agents are embedded across business functions, data pipelines, and user experiences.

As multi-agent systems become more central to digital operations, the ability to manage them securely, at scale, and across cloud environments is emerging as a key differentiator. NTT DATA’s ecosystem aims to offer that capability, packaged with advisory services and global delivery infrastructure.

Whether in customer service, supply chain management, or fraud detection, AI agents are increasingly taking on roles once reserved for human analysts and decision-makers. As these roles expand, so too does the need for frameworks that support intelligent, compliant, and context-aware automation. NTT DATA’s announcement signals its intent to provide that foundation.