WEX Turns a Three-Person Team Into an AI Blueprint

Agentic AI changes more than workflows, it changes how an organization operates, WEX Chief Digital Officer Karen Stroup writes in a new PYMNTS eBook, “Building the Agent-Ready Payments Enterprise.”

Every conversation I’ve been in about agentic AI arrives at the same question: “Where do we start?” Most executives I talk to are asking which agents to deploy. The better question is what kind of company do you want to become, and how does that change everything about how work gets done?

Agentic AI is not a technology transformation. It’s an enterprise transformation. The organizations that create lasting value won’t be the ones with the best models. They’ll be the ones willing to redesign how their companies actually operate.

From what I’m seeing, three shifts matter most.

Lead With the Vision

Don’t start by asking what artificial intelligence can automate. Start by asking what your business would look like if AI were built into it from day one.

Too many organizations begin by inserting AI into existing processes. That delivers incremental efficiency, but rarely transformational value. The better starting point is to define the future state you’re trying to create. If intelligent agents were part of every customer interaction, every employee experience and every major decision, how would your business operate differently? Hold the vision tightly, but the roadmap loosely.

Then work backward. Don’t just optimize individual workflows — reimagine the connected work that creates value for customers. Agents don’t simply automate tasks; they give us permission to redesign how work flows across the enterprise. The companies making the most progress aren’t optimizing yesterday’s work. They’re designing tomorrow’s.

Build the Talent and Culture to Scale

Every organization needs a core of AI builders to get the flywheel moving. But they don’t create transformation alone. Their role is to help business teams think differently — to question assumptions, run experiments and redesign the work they know best. The goal isn’t a large, centralized AI team. It’s an organization where every team has the confidence to rethink how their work gets done.

We saw this firsthand. In one of our operational functions, a small team — three people, including one who combined deep business expertise with technical fluency — began building agents against workflows they actually owned. The order mattered: infrastructure first, then skills, then agents. That sequence, combined with the right mix of business and technical expertise, is what allowed the work to scale.

As that capability spreads, confidence spreads with it. Culture becomes the multiplier. The organizations that scale AI successfully don’t just invest in technology, they build a culture where people think critically, question assumptions and are willing to experiment their way to better answers. In the agentic enterprise, the organizations that win won’t be the ones that always have the right answer. They’ll be the ones that learn the fastest.

Redesign Your Operating Model, Not Just Your Governance Model

Agentic AI changes more than workflows, it changes how an organization operates. As agents take on more execution, people create value through judgment, creativity, relationship-building and solving complex customer problems. That requires new leadership expectations, new decision rights and new ways of measuring success.

Governance is a critical part of that operating model, but too many organizations think of it only as risk management. The other half — one we don’t talk about enough — is helping people navigate constant reinvention.

Good guardrails don’t just define what agents can and can’t do. They create safe conditions for experimentation. They give teams clarity on where they’re empowered to innovate, where human judgment is required and permission to learn when something doesn’t work. The companies that move fastest won’t be the ones with the most restrictive governance. They’ll be the ones whose operating models make learning, adaptation and continuous reinvention part of how work gets done every day.

The destination is worth saying clearly: an enterprise where humans spend more time on the work only humans can do — judgment, creativity, the moments where context and accountability still matter. Getting there isn’t a project you plan and execute. It’s a muscle you build. Hold the vision tightly. Hold the roadmap loosely.