Babak Hodjat on the Agentic Wave of AI
He built the foundation for Siri!
This weekend on AI Inside, Jeff Jarvis and I sit down with Babak Hodjat, CTO for AI at Cognizant and a pioneer whose work helped lay the foundation for Siri. When I saw his name flash by my inbox, I knew his long term perspective would be a welcome presence on the podcast.
Babak brings decades of experience in agent-based systems to a conversation that spans the evolution of natural language technology, the promise and pitfalls of multi-agent architectures, and the safeguards needed to build trust in increasingly autonomous systems.
In this episode, we explore how language has become the ultimate interface for human-AI collaboration, why modular agentic systems are fundamentally changing enterprise automation, and what it takes to keep these systems safe and transparent as they scale.
But first, a huge thank you to our Patron of the Week, Chris Spackman. You can support the show at patreon.com/aiinsideshow.
Just a few highlights..
“An agent is a combination of a large language model and code.” Babak explains how this simple formula unlocks flexibility and power in enterprise AI. This one honestly stopped me in my tracks, I had not heard of agents explained so succinctly before.
Babak shares the origin story of Siri, describing how early multi-agent systems focused on semantics over grammar and were easily extensible across languages.
Language is a powerful interface, but Babak points out that effective AI systems must blend language with other modalities like visuals and actions to create truly useful experiences.
On interoperability, Babak details the emergence of new standards and protocols that allow agents from different platforms to communicate and collaborate, including work with the UN’s ITU and open-source initiatives.
Trust and safety remain top priorities. Babak discusses the importance of explicit safeguards, such as kill switches and confidence thresholds, to ensure reliability and transparency in agentic systems.
Listen to the Full Conversation
This is just a glimpse into a wonderful conversation. To hear all of Babak Hodjat’s insights, including his thoughts on agent negotiation, enterprise adoption, and the future of AI standards, check out the full episode on your favorite podcast platform.
Also, I want to extend a HUGE thank you to our Executive Producers on Patreon: DrDew, Jeffrey Marraccini, WPVM 103.7 in Asheville NC, Dante St James, Bono De Rick, Jason Neiffer, Jason Brady, and Anthony Downs!
See you next Wednesday!