Merel Donkers

Merel Donkers is AI Channel Innovation Lead at PostNL, where she focuses on improving customer interaction through innovative AI solutions, especially in Conversational AI. She sets up new AI projects and actively explores the latest trends such as agentic AI and MCP to experiment and discover where AI can create the most value. She also writes an AI blog and is part of the AI Committee at DDMA.

About the session

The Agentic Vanguard: proven outcomes, hard lessons, and how to apply them

Agentic AI is already generating measurable results for enterprises that have embraced it. Benefits like tripled deployment speed and 90% containment are balanced by unexpected challenges, often contradicting vendor promises. Obstacles such as legacy infrastructure, scattered data, and cultural resistance prove as decisive as the technology itself.

This session distills insights from the pioneering 5%: what worked, what failed, and what they’d change. Attendees will walk away with a clear view of the strategic edge Agentic AI creates, the barriers that stall adoption, and the success factors that separate winning deployments from failed experiments.