AI Agents Need Upkeep, Not Just an Inventory

IBM announced new watsonx Orchestrate capabilities on October 27, including tools to discover agents across platforms, evaluate performance, inspect execution traces, and manage identity and access controls. These are IBM’s product claims, not independent evidence that an agent will be reliable in a particular workflow. (IBM’s announcement)

The useful shift is treating agents as systems that need ongoing care—not one-off deployments. But a central inventory alone won’t show whether a workflow can recover when a tool fails, or who is responsible for its permissions and upkeep.

A practical test: start with one workflow, name its owner, define the access it needs, and rehearse how essential work continues if the agent fails. Review the evidence before expanding. What would you need to see before trusting an agent with a business-critical task?