From Building Bridges to Building Intelligence: How Shail Khiyara is Rewiring the Future of AI

When alumnus Shail Khiyara talks about agentic AI, he isn’t just introducing another tech trend. He’s making a bold case for a fundamental shift in how humans and machines collaborate to solve problems, make decisions and create lasting value.

“For years, we’ve built AI that waits for a prompt,” he says. “But real intelligence adapts. It collaborates. It has intent.” This belief, shaped over a decades-long career at the frontlines of enterprise technology, has made Khiyara a prominent voice in intelligent automation and, now, agentic AI systems.

In his latest book, “Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work, and Life,” co-authored with Tom Davenport and Pascal Bornet, Khiyara lays out a new vision for enterprise AI — where software doesn’t just respond to prompts, but instead perceives, reasons and acts with purpose.

"Most AI today is reactive. But the world doesn’t work on command — it flows, it surprises. Agentic AI doesn’t wait to be asked. It collaborates, it adapts, it pursues goals."

Agentic AI systems are designed to operate autonomously within defined parameters — they can interpret environments, set objectives and take action to achieve them. They’re goal-oriented and context-aware, capable of adjusting their strategies based on feedback or new information. By contrast, generative AI models like ChatGPT are prompt-driven: they generate responses based on static input without independent intent or persistence. Where generative AI excels at producing content, agentic AI is built to execute tasks, solve problems and continuously adapt in dynamic real-world systems.

AI isn't here to replace people. It's here to work with us.

For Khiyara, this isn’t just theory. He’s spent the last two decades shaping the enterprise AI and automation landscape — leading global teams at Blue Prism and UiPath during the early rise of digital labor, then pushing the edge further as CEO of SWARM, a California-based AI-powered decision optimization company transforming supply chains, logistics and food systems.

But his journey began far from Silicon Valley — on the campus of NJIT, where he earned a master’s degree in Civil Engineering in 1988.

"Engineering at NJIT rewired how I see the world. It taught me to deconstruct complexity — into variables, constraints and systems that must hold under pressure. That mindset never left me. I'm still building bridges — only now they span decisions, data, and AI. And they're built for speed, scale and strategy.”

After NJIT, Khiyara sharpened his strategic lens at Yale and Harvard before stepping into the tech arena. At UiPath, he helped ignite a global automation movement — scaling fast, across industries and borders. Now at SWARM, he’s moved from velocity to precision — applying agentic AI to help enterprises navigate complexity, volatility and constraint with clarity and confidence.

We need more AI people who understand business. And more business people who understand AI.

"Innovation today isn’t about shiny features. It’s about judgment. It's about serving deeply. And it's about saying no to the wrong opportunities so you can over-deliver on the right ones."

He realized the scale of his impact when a Fortune 500 firm adopted a strategic framework he had written years earlier — without ever consulting him. That moment reframed his mission.

"It wasn’t about my title anymore. It was about how people were thinking. That’s when I leaned in harder on writing, mentoring, and shaping industry conversations."

To bridge the often-fragmented gap between builders and business leaders, Khiyara founded the VOCAL Council in 2020 — a forum for executives and technologists to translate across silos and align on purpose, outcomes and responsible AI.

He emphasizes that the biggest barrier to AI adoption isn’t technical complexity, but organizational misalignment. "We need more AI people who understand business. And more business people who understand AI. That’s how we move from what’s possible to what’s valuable."

To the next generation of NJIT graduates, his message is sharp:

• First: your technical education is a superpower—and not the only destination. It’s the foundation.
• Second: the world needs not just engineers, but engineers who challenge systems. Think structurally, act boldly, and don’t be afraid to ask ‘why not?’
• Third: define success on your terms. There’s no single path. “Some of you will build products, others will build companies, others will build communities. They’re all needed.”

And perhaps most importantly: "Stay curious. Stay useful. Stay generous. Purpose fuels passion. Know your ‘why,’ and the rest will follow."

As AI enters the agentic era, Khiyara is still very much in builder mode. But his tools have changed. His raw materials are different. And his mission — to design systems that scale not just intelligence, but judgment and trust — has never been more urgent.

"AI isn't here to replace people. It's here to work with us. Silicon still needs carbon. And purpose still drives everything."