Everybody wants to rule the world
The Blueprint Alliance just locked you into a one-way door. Here's how to build your way back out.
Why it matters
Enterprise alliances around AI agent governance create the appearance of choice while quietly consolidating vendor lock-in. The article argues practitioners must own their data layer, AI harness, and evaluation frameworks to maintain negotiating leverage and avoid the multi-year cost and complexity spiral that follows initial deployment.
The key facts
16 to knowBlueprint Alliance launched at Oktane by Okta, AWS, CrowdStrike, Databricks, Google Cloud, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Wiz, Zscaler
Gartner prediction: average Fortune 500 will run 150,000+ agents by 2028, up from <15 in 2025
PwC finding: more than half of CEOs reported AI delivered neither higher revenue nor lower costs over prior 12 months; only 1 in 8 saw both
Morgan Stanley: 98% of advisor teams use AI assistant after evaluation framework deployment
Klarna: cut cost per transaction from $0.32 to $0.19, then rehired human agents due to quality decline from cost-focus
Reference architecture addresses four questions: Where are agents? What can they do? What are they doing? How do I respond?
Author advocates five moves for 'sovereignty': own data layer, build AI harness, price year three before signing year one, measure in business terms, keep program in-house
Blueprint Alliance formed by Okta, AWS, CrowdStrike, Databricks, Google Cloud, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Wiz, Zscaler with open reference architecture
Four governance questions: Where are my agents? What can they do? What are they doing? How do I respond?
Gartner prediction: average Fortune 500 company will run >150,000 agents by 2028 (up from <15 in 2025)
PwC finding: >50% of CEOs report AI delivered neither higher revenue nor lower costs in prior 12 months; only 1 in 8 saw both
TrustLogix founder notes: agents need identities, but identity alone does not make action trustworthy
Author's case study: VMware's 'Get Off Oracle' initiative regained control by virtualizing Oracle stack, reducing build times from weeks to hours
Klarna cost-per-transaction reduction: $0.32 to $0.19 over two years, but lower quality drove rehiring of human agents
Morgan Stanley: 98% of advisor teams use AI assistant after testing all use cases before deployment
McKinsey finding: CEOs with strong AI foundations 3x more likely to report meaningful financial returns
Go to the source
CIOcio.com
Publisher excerpt: At Oktane a couple of weeks ago, Okta and a group of enterprise heavyweights, including AWS, CrowdStrike, Databricks, Google Cloud, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Wiz and Zscaler, launched the Blueprint Alliance. Their goal is a shared plan for securing and governing AI agents across the enterprise. The…