Exploring the history and future of AI & Agents with Dr. Don Perugini (CEO - Socontra)

In this episode of Factory Fireside, Peter Inge sits down with Dr. Don Perugini, a pioneer in AI and agentic systems with over 20 years of real-world experience spanning defence, enterprise, healthcare, and startups. Together, they cut through the hype to explore what agents actually are, why most enterprise pilots stall, and what it really takes to move from experimentation to production impact.This is not a surface-level LLM conversation. Don draws on decades of work building cognitive agents, federated AI systems, and large-scale simulations from predicting bushfire behaviour and modelling entire populations, to improving IVF success rates and enabling privacy-preserving AI in healthcare.You’ll hear:Why agents didn’t start with LLMs, and why that history mattersThe real reasons 95% of AI pilots never reach P&L impactWhy “narrow problems” outperform grand AI ambitionsHow agentic commerce and the agentic web will change SaaS and B2BWhy AGI is mostly a distraction and what progress actually looks likeWhat founders and technologists should focus on now to build durable AI businessesThis episode is essential viewing for technology leaders, founders, product teams, and anyone trying to understand where AI agents are genuinely delivering value and where the hype still vastly outweighs reality.🎧 If you care about building AI that works in the real world, this one’s for you.

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