Zoho detailed the challenges of agentic AI in business applications in a blog post published on June 11, 2026. The company explained that while every business app now includes an AI agent specialized in its domain, these agents operate in isolation, leading to fragmented insights. This fragmentation occurs because agents access data only from their specific applications, such as CRM or helpdesk, without cross-communication.
According to Zoho, most AI agents connect directly to individual app APIs to pull data and perform reasoning. This approach is quick to implement but causes five key problems at scale, starting with data fragmentation. For example, a sales AI agent may not have visibility into overdue invoices or support escalations, limiting its ability to provide comprehensive answers. Zoho illustrated this with scenarios where agents see only slices of business data, resulting in partial and sometimes conflicting responses.
This issue matters as mid-market companies typically use a dozen or more applications spanning CRM, finance, HR, and other functions. Without a unified data foundation, AI agents cannot deliver holistic insights, which reduces their effectiveness. Zoho’s analysis underscores the need for integrated data infrastructure to enable AI agents to collaborate and access complete business information. This is critical as AI adoption in SaaS grows and companies seek more intelligent automation across departments.
Zoho’s blog post is the first in a four-part series on Agentic Data Infrastructure, signaling the company’s focus on solving these integration challenges. The series aims to outline strategies for building data foundations that support multi-agent AI systems, enhancing their ability to provide accurate and comprehensive business intelligence.