96% of Companies Run AI Agents. Only 21% Can Control Them

96% of companies are running AI agents in production. Only 21% can actually control them.

Gari Singh has watched this movie before. Three times. XML middleware, enterprise blockchain, and now AI infrastructure at Google Cloud, and every wave has the same opening act: teams rush to deploy before the platform team is even in the room.

In this episode of [Dev]olution, Nicky Pike, and Gari break down what the outer loop actually costs you when agents go ungoverned, why "Ninja IT" is the new shadow IT, and what platform engineers need to do this Monday to stop building on a foundation that's already cracking.

If you're still treating agent governance as a roadmap item, this episode is the reason to move it to the top of the list.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. Why automating bad processes with AI just makes bad things happen faster
2. The three things every platform engineer should do this week, according to Gari
3. Why MCP servers are the new SOAP and will disappear in five years
   
   

Things to listen for: 

(00:00) Meet Gari Singh

(02:00) What DataPower taught him about governing traffic

(04:30) AI adoption versus the blockchain free-for-all

(06:30) The stat that should scare every platform team

(09:00) Why Kubernetes took a decade but AI took 18 months

(14:30) Prompt injection and limiting the blast radius

(18:00) Ninja IT is the new shadow IT

(20:30) Automating bad processes just makes bad things worse

(25:00) Self-managed MCP versus the enterprise version

(28:30) Why YOLO mode survives elicitation

(35:00) How platform teams hold the line without becoming the villain

(39:30) The outer loop is still the bottleneck

(44:00) Three things every platform engineer should do this week

(51:00) Rapid fire with Gari

(53:30) 2028 predictions and the governance reckoning

Resources:

Gari Singh’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garisingh/

Google’s website: https://www.google.com

What is [Dev]olution?

The development world is cluttered with buzzwords and distractions. Speed, focus, and freedom? Gone.
I’m Nicky Pike. And it’s time for a reset.

[Dev]olution is here to help you get back to what matters: creating, solving, and making an impact. No trend chasing, just asking better questions.

What do devs really want?

How can platform teams drive flow, not friction?

How does AI actually help?

Join me every two weeks for straight talk with the people shaping the future of dev.

This is the [Dev]olution.