Still Essential: Ruchir Puri, IBM Chief Scientist, on the Death of Prompt Engineering and the Rise of Agentic AI {Replay}

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First Aired Apr 23, 2025

If you've been following the AI space lately, this episode hits differently the second time around.

When Al sat down with Ruchir Puri — Chief Scientist of IBM Research, IBM Fellow, and the architect behind Watson and watsonx — the conversation covered ground that's only gotten more relevant since: the death of prompt engineering, the rise of agentic AI, and why 2025 was always going to be the year agents broke through in the enterprise.

Ruchir doesn't deal in hype. He deals in systems — real ones, running at scale, in industries where a hallucinated number has consequences. In this masterclass, he walks through inference scaling, memory in AI systems, and what it actually means to build AI that's useful rather than just impressive.

If you're new to the show, this is the episode to start with. If you've heard it before — trust us, it lands differently now.

Key moments:

• 12:21 — Why prompt engineering is already fading (and what replaces it)
• 13:39 — Inference scaling: the frontier that's not about training anymore
• 16:26 — Why AI systems that "forget" are failing us
• 17:56 — The full agentic loop: Think, Plan, Act, Execute, Observe, Reflect
• 23:45 — Why enterprise AI agents are no longer a future state

Making Data Simple is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM.

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Want to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple?  Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next.  The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.