Still Essential: Ruchir Puri, IBM Chief Scientist, on the Death of Prompt Engineering and the Rise of Agentic AI {Replay}

Send us Fan Mail First Aired Apr 23, 2025 If you've been following the AI space lately, this episode hits differently the second time around. When Al sat down with Ruchir Puri — Chief Scientist of IBM Research, IBM Fellow, and the architect behind Watson and watsonx — the conversation covered ground that's only gotten more relevant since: the death of prompt engineering, the rise of agentic AI, and why 2025 was always going to be the year agents broke through in the enterprise. Ruchir doesn't deal in hype. He deals in systems — real ones, running at scale, in industries where a hallucinated number has consequences. In this masterclass, he walks through inference scaling, memory in AI systems, and what it actually means to build AI that's useful rather than just impressive. If you're new to the show, this is the episode to start with. If you've heard it before — trust us, it lands differently now. Key moments: 12:21 — Why prompt engineering is already fading (and what replaces it) 13:39 — Inference scaling: the frontier that's not about training anymore 16:26 — Why AI systems that "forget" are failing us 17:56 — The full agentic loop: Think, Plan, Act, Execute, Observe, Reflect 23:45 — Why enterprise AI agents are no longer a future state Making Data Simple is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM. Ruchir's Linkedin Al's LinkedIn Explore IBM's Watsonx Want to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

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Still Essential: Ruchir Puri, IBM Chief Scientist, on the Death of Prompt Engineering and the Rise of Agentic AI {Replay} is an episode from IBM Analytics Insights Podcasts by Making Data Simple.

This episode is 29:40 long.

This episode was published on Mar 18, 2026.

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