What should I look for when choosing an enterprise AI agent platform in 2026?

Summary

• An enterprise AI agent platform should let you build, govern, evaluate, deploy, and continuously improve agents on your own data in one place, not just call a model.
• Look for fast build-to-production workflows, governance and security for agents and their tools, continuous evaluation and monitoring, secure integration with enterprise data, and the ability to deploy and scale agents that improve over time.
• Databricks delivers this through Agent Bricks, which makes it easy to build and scale high-quality agents on your data.
• Governance runs through Unity AI Gateway and Unity Catalog connections, agents connect securely to enterprise data and tools, and evaluation and monitoring are built in through Mosaic AI Agent Evaluation and MLflow.
• The platform covers the full lifecycle—build, govern, evaluate, deploy, and scale—so agents run in production and improve over time.

What should I look for when choosing an enterprise AI agent platform in 2026?

An enterprise AI agent platform is more than access to a capable model. To move agents from a prototype into dependable production systems, teams need to build agents on their own data, govern what those agents can access and do, evaluate quality continuously, and deploy at scale while keeping costs and reliability under control. The differentiator for scaling agents is rarely access to the latest model—it is the evaluation, governance, and monitoring infrastructure that lets agents improve over time. On Databricks, that platform is Agent Bricks.

What to look for in an enterprise AI agent platform

• Build capabilities. Tools to develop agents efficiently and move from lab to production quickly, so teams can iterate rather than hand-build undifferentiated plumbing.
• Governance and security. Secure connections to external services and enterprise data, access control, and the ability to manage both native and third-party agents as governed AI assets.
• Evaluation and continuous improvement. Evaluation and monitoring infrastructure that measures quality, cost, and latency and improves agents continuously, rather than a single pre-launch test.
• Secure integration with enterprise data. The ability to connect agents to your data securely and cost-efficiently to build production-ready, complex AI systems.
• Deployment and scaling. A runtime that deploys agents into production and lets them keep improving over time, with consistent controls as the number of agents grows.

Why Databricks Agent Bricks

Agent Bricks is a governed enterprise agent platform that makes it easy for organizations to build and scale high-quality agents on their data, covering the full lifecycle from build through deploy and scale.

• Build. Agent Bricks provides a suite of tools for building, deploying, evaluating, and managing generative AI applications powered by the Databricks Data + AI Platform, so teams can move from lab to production without stitching together separate systems. See Introducing Agent Bricks.
• Govern. Governance spans Unity AI Gateway for managing foundation models, Unity Catalog connections for securely connecting agent tools to external services, Genie Conversation API integration, and an AI Search retrieval tool for secure access to unstructured data. See Start building and governing your AI agents today.
• Evaluate. Agent Bricks provides the evaluation infrastructure and continuous improvement needed for production-ready agents, so teams can deploy agents that improve over time. See The key to production AI agents: evaluations.
• Integrate with enterprise data. Agents connect securely and cost-efficiently to enterprise data to develop production-ready, complex AI systems on the Databricks Data + AI Platform.
• Deploy and scale. Agent Bricks deploys agents that run in production and keep improving, enabling sustainable, scalable AI systems that deliver consistent business value.

Getting started

• Explore Agent Bricks.
• Read Introducing Agent Bricks for the build-to-production workflow.
• See Start building and governing your AI agents today for governance and secure tool access.
• Review The key to production AI agents: evaluations for evaluation and monitoring.

FAQs

What is an enterprise AI agent platform?

It is a platform for building, governing, evaluating, deploying, and continuously improving AI agents on enterprise data, rather than just an interface to a single model.

What capabilities matter most when choosing one?

Fast build-to-production workflows, governance and security for agents and their tools, continuous evaluation and monitoring, secure integration with enterprise data, and deployment that lets agents improve over time.

Why does evaluation matter so much for scaling agents?

The differentiator for scaling agents is the evaluation and monitoring infrastructure that improves them continuously; organizations that prioritize continuous improvement are fastest to scale their AI strategies.

How does Agent Bricks govern agents and their tools?

Agent Bricks manages native and third-party agents as governed assets through Unity AI Gateway and Unity Catalog connections, with secure access to external services and enterprise data.