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Breaking through all the noise around agentic AI is getting more difficult, Insight Partners managing director Praveen Akkiraju tells Axios Pro.

Why it matters: Insight Partners has invested in more than 60 companies that are agentic-born or have incorporated agentic AI into their core products.

Insight led a $32 million Series A for San Francisco-based agentic AI compliance startup Delve earlier this week.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Does the current level of investment surprise you?

"No, it's primarily because agentic AI is such a fundamental transformation. So what we're seeing is the entire enterprise architecture being transformed into an agentic way of working.

This is more than just, like, 'We've got a new type of application.' It's a fundamental replatforming of all of the enterprise architecture onto an agentic foundation."

What is it like investing in this kind of environment and rising valuations from just 18 months ago?

"There's a tremendous amount of noise out there as an investor. Every company that comes out is essentially agentic these days, right? And so you really need to be able to understand and get to the next level of detail.

So myself and a few of my partners spend a lot of time essentially talking to every company. I take about at least a half a dozen to 10 company calls a week."

What would you compare the current investing environment to from the past?

"The closest thing that comes to mind is the dot-com boom. And this is the reason why I said earlier, like, there's a lot of noise in the system, you know. Everybody's an agent right?

Insight has a long history of being engaged in the workflow automation space, and spending time in B2B software helps give us a better lens. But, you have to do your work right. You have to do your diligence. You have to understand the product."

Are we getting to a point where agents will replace humans in some cases?

"It's an important question. You know the notion that AI agents are able to get the task 80%, 90%, 95% of the way with the human coming in essentially to make sure things are right. That is sort of where AI agents are today. Human-in-the-loop is sort of a fundamental design principle."

"If you talk to researchers, they're going to tell you that agents are going to essentially do end-to-end tasks autonomously. You need more safety nets on the enterprise side than on the consumer side, but I think the arc is such that we're going to get better and better."

Do you think M&A dealmaking will pick up in agentic AI?

"Market changes will force M&A. I think we're still early. I think we're relatively early in the AI agent cycle. So maybe next year…We'll see how it plays out."

Insight Partners' Praveen Akkiraju on investing around the "noise" in agentic AI

Breaking through all the agentic AI chatter is getting more difficult.

Photo illustration of Praveen Akkiraju next to a pattern of Insight Partners logos.

Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: Courtesy of Insight Partners

Breaking through all the noise around agentic AI is getting more difficult, Insight Partners managing director Praveen Akkiraju tells Axios Pro.Why it matters: Insight Partners has invested in more than 60 companies that are agentic-born or have incorporated agentic AI into their core products.

Insight Partners' Praveen Akkiraju on investing around the "noise" in agentic AI

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