Stephen Stouffer — Director of Automation Solutions, Tray.ai
Published:
If you not only have bad data or even if you have really good data, but the data is not connected and your agents don’t have access to that data, then they’re only as good as the data that they have and the connectedness that they have within the platform. That’s why having an integration-first approach—making sure your tech stack at a fundamental layer is connected before you even think about building agents or automation that sits on top of that—is critical. Otherwise you start deploying agents and then realize that you have to connect the data and clean the data and then you’re kind of back to square one.
What does Stephen Stouffer say on The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström?
Stephen Stouffer, Director of Automation Solutions, Tray.ai, says: This interview with Stephen Stouffer, Director of Automation Solutions at Tray.ai, explains why many enterprise AI initiatives fail despite investment—chiefly due to brittle integrations and disconnected data. Stouffer argues for an integration-first, composable architecture and a central orchestration layer so teams can swap components without breaking workflows. He also recommends starting AI efforts by solving high-friction operational problems to prove ROI and drive broader adoption.
From: The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström
Cite as: Stephen Stouffer. (2026). On The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström. Retrieved from https://research.agilebrandguide.com/insights/stephen-stouffer-if-you-not-only-have-bad-data-or-even-if-you-have-really-goo