Dr. Foteini Agrafioti is the senior vice-president for data and artificial intelligence and chief science officer at Royal Bank of Canada.

As organizations consider adopting artificial intelligence, they are faced with three options: build the AI technology in-house, buy it from a third-party vendor or develop a hybrid solution with third-party support.

These options have pros and cons but one constant should exist across all models: organizational support. Stakeholders, from business leaders, technology teams, functional partners and end users must have a strong understanding and commitment to the AI approach if it is to be successful.

The main benefit of building a proprietary AI solution is customization. An organization has full control over a product, its capabilities, data security, design and ensuring it’s tailored to business needs.

A solution that is custom built for a specific problem is typically also more accurate because it is truly adapted to the business specifications. As statisticians always argue, an off-the-shelf tool may be able to achieve a good enough predictive accuracy, but a tool that is designed for the specific data problem will always surpass that.

In-house development allows teams to focus precisely on the business problem while ensuring safety and security requirements are met. This approach also provides flexibility, so the technology can adapt to evolving business needs.

But building everything in-house can be time consuming and expensive. Drawbacks of in-house development include costly upfront and ongoing investment in talent, technology and infrastructure. Commoditized technology can be easily leveraged and deployed to save time, scale and achieve business results faster.

Commercial platforms and products have unique value propositions, including the advantage of leveraging ongoing vendor investment and speed to market – they are limited in customization which can be restrictive when it comes to maintaining a competitive market advantage.

A hybrid ecosystem balances customization, investment and speed to market. RBC approaches the architecture of our AI ecosystem by first focusing on the needs of our business, inferring a set of necessary capabilities and then selecting suppliers for those capabilities, including building in-house where we see an advantage. We engage with products from different vendor partners but retain the option to switch to competitive products or build alternatives internally.

With 19 million global clients across five businesses, we have access to data comprising billions of client transactions, which is why industry-leading products in combination with our proprietary AI models such as ATOM deliver the most value for our business.

To accomplish this, we’ve developed a standardized environment for the development and deployment of services, which embeds all necessary security and resiliency controls but also makes it easy for development teams to adopt and use every day.

While this infrastructure is necessary because of the sensitive data we host, such as personal and financial information, it may not be a priority for businesses operating in a less risk-averse sector. For these businesses or even for segments of RBC where we have less need for strict governance, adopting commonly available vendor AI products can provide a good return on investment.

We bring all our data together onto a centralized data platform, Lumina, that systematically collects and curates data across business lines and enables us to build cutting-edge AI in a safe and scalable way.

Delivering innovative AI models and solutions requires diverse and deep collections of data and Lumina provides this while ensuring that all data is used only according to our strict privacy and data protection policies. It’s true that executing on a hybrid strategy requires a deep investment in talent and culture, but it also requires organizational support and collaboration across the business to solve real complex problems.

So, the question remains: how should an organization build its AI ecosystem? The key lesson we have learned is that no solution is ever fully build-or-buy – a healthy environment is a blend of both.

An organization may consider buying a product when there’s no competitive advantage to building a customized version of the same capability, given the product meets organizational requirements such as security, reliability and ethics. Examples of this are using a customer support chat bot, engaging in personalized email marketing or providing customers with recommendations for their next purchase based on their transaction history.

Building a product may be an option when there is an opportunity to integrate valuable intellectual property that likely won’t be available in an off-the-shelf product such as proprietary algorithms or data sets.

While each strategy has its distinct advantages and drawbacks, focusing on the needs of the business will help establish an optimal operating model that supports the necessary capabilities required to successfully deploy an AI ecosystem effectively and securely.

This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Raiven Capital today released its bold vision for the future of AI adoption: Agentic Infrastructure. This framework marks a shift away from chasing ever-larger AI models and toward building scalable, modular systems that embed intelligence directly into business operations.

AI generated Image by Dr James Baty

“AI has moved beyond demos,” said Supreet Manchanda, General Partner at Raiven Capital. “The real breakthroughs are coming from systems that coordinate, remember, and adapt— AI as infrastructure, not as a feature.”

Why Agentic Infrastructure Matters

• Architecture Over Features: Success will come from how AI systems are structured and orchestrated, not just from model size.
• From Models to Ecosystems: Businesses must move from stand-alone LLMs to multi-agent, modular platforms that scale and evolve.
• The Next Platform Shift: Just as cloud, mobile, and the web required enabling architectures, AI now needs its equivalent  ecosystem fabric for mass adoption.

“Enterprises need resilient, interoperable AI ecosystems—not brittle point tools,” added Dr. James Baty, Raiven Partner and co-author of the framework. “This is how AI will transition from hype to durable impact. Agentic AI with Context Engineering is the next IT ‘architecture’ – living ecosystems that constantly evolve.”

A Call to Founders and Enterprises

Raiven’s thesis challenges startups and enterprises alike to ask:

• Are your systems agent-native or model-bound?
• Do you align with emerging protocol standards like MCP and A2A, or risk siloing?
• Are you building composable cognitive ecosystems that scale dynamically, or fragile one-offs?

“If you’re building with AI, your real advantage is how your agents communicate, escalate, and learn — this is how to future-proof your startup. Come learn more at Dry Powder,” said Paul Dugsin, General Partner at Raiven Capital.

Raiven Capital is a global VC, investing at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, and operational transformation. With hubs in Silicon Valley, Toronto, and Dubai, Raiven has delivered multiple successful exits since 2020. Its portfolio spans deeptech and digital platforms driving systemic change. Learn more at raivencapital.com or follow Dry Powder, Raiven’s thought leadership platform.

Media Contact: press@raivencapital.com

09/10/2025 – 08:00 AM

Powered by Amdocs’ AI-native solutions, the agreement extends and expands Amdocs’ managed services engagement for Optimum’s broadband and video services products

JERSEY CITY, NJ / ACCESS Newswire / September 10, 2025 / Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX), a leading provider of software and services to communications and media companies, today announced that Optimum, a leading provider of fiber internet, mobile, and TV services, has signed a multi‑year agreement to extend and deepen its managed transformation initiative using Amdocs’ AI offerings.

This collaboration enhances Optimum’s ongoing journey with Amdocs by delivering new customer and business outcomes enabled by amAIz Suite-Amdocs’ modular, telco‑grade AI platform that unifies data, delivers insights, and powers intelligent agents tailored for the communications industry. Under this agreement, the teams have started working on solutions that include:

• AI-powered Bill Presenter, designed to offer more intuitive, interactive billing experiences that improve customer understanding and reduce support calls.

• GenAI Care Agent, supporting customer care representatives with inquiries such as plan changes, promotions, balances, fees, and more.

Additionally, amAIz Suite will assist Optimum’s ongoing efforts to modernize its billing infrastructure, helping overcome legacy system challenges with a forward-looking approach aligned to the demands of the digital economy.

“At Optimum, we are undergoing work that is transforming our business from the inside out, including the modernization and evolution of our technology foundation through various AI tools and partner solutions that will deliver better agent and customer experiences,” said Luciano Ramos, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Optimum. “This collaboration with Amdocs is poised to help us consolidate and streamline critical systems like billing while building a more resilient, future-ready architecture to accelerate innovation and support long-term business growth.”

“Our collaboration with Optimum underscores the growing need for smart, scalable operations that go beyond traditional IT services,” said Anthony Goonetilleke, Group President of Technology and Head of Strategy at Amdocs. “With our AI-powered solutions, we’re empowering Optimum to simplify complexity, accelerate innovation, and unlock long-term business value.”

Anthony Goonetilleke and Luciano Ramos will be speaking during the “Amdocs & Optimum – Verticalizing AI for Telcos” fireside chat during the Ready, set, scale: Getting AI game-ready session at TM Forum, Innovate Americas in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday, September 10^th at 11AM local time.

Supporting Resources

About Amdocs

Amdocs helps those who build the future to make it amazing. With our market-leading portfolio of software products and services, we unlock our customers’ innovative potential, empowering them to provide next-generation communication and media experiences for both the individual end user and enterprise customers. Our employees around the globe are here to accelerate service providers’ migration to the cloud, enable them to differentiate in the 5G era, and digitalize and automate their operations. Listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, Amdocs had revenue of $5.00 billion in fiscal 2024. For more information, visit www.amdocs.com

Amdocs’ Forward-Looking Statement

This press release includes information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about Amdocs’ growth and business results in future quarters and years. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be obtained or that any deviations will not be material. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, the effects of general macroeconomic conditions, prevailing level of macroeconomic, business and operational uncertainty, including as a result of geopolitical events or other regional events or pandemics, changes to trade policies including tariffs and trade restrictions, as well as the current inflationary environment, and the effects of these conditions on the Company’s customers’ businesses and levels of business activity, including the effect of the current economic uncertainty and industry pressure on the spending decisions of the Company’s customers. Amdocs’ ability to grow in the business markets that it serves, Amdocs’ ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, adverse effects of market competition, rapid technological shifts that may render the Company’s products and services obsolete, security incidents, including breaches and cyberattacks to our systems and networks and those of our partners or customers, potential loss of a major customer, our ability to develop long-term relationships with our customers, our ability to successfully and effectively implement artificial intelligence and Generative AI in the Company’s offerings and operations, and risks associated with operating businesses in the international market. Amdocs may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future; however, Amdocs specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These and other risks are discussed at greater length in Amdocs’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024, filed on December 17, 2024, and our Form 6-K furnished for the first quarter of fiscal 2025 on February 18, 2025, for the second quarter of fiscal 2025 on May 19, 2025, and for the third quarter of fiscal 2025 on August 18, 2025.

Media Contacts

Michael Zema
Amdocs Public Relations
Mzema@amdocs.com

SOURCE: Amdocs Management Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire