AI Grows Up - Long Live Agentic
🚀 RPA is dead.
Long live Agentic Automation.
Imagine AI that doesn't just follow rules… it thinks, adapts, and reasons through your most complex workflows.
In this special edition of Fueling AI, we unpack the game-changing concept of Agentic Automation from New Tide AI—and why it’s a huge leap forward for fuel and convenience retail.
You’ll discover:
🧠Why AI agents are smarter than bots
⚙️ How 300+ systems can now talk to each other
📦 What makes one bill of lading workflow a blueprint for the future
🔒 Why “controlled agency” might be the trust bridge for enterprise AI
💥 This isn’t about replacing jobs—it’s about amplifying your people.
🎧 Listen now and ask yourself:
What bottleneck in your business is ready for an intelligent agent?
This episode is powered by NewTide.ai, Enterprise AI Built for the Fuels and Convenience Industry. Learn more here: https://newtide.ai/
Transcript
Welcome to a special edition of Fueling AI.
Speaker A:This is the place where we explore the the cutting edge of artificial intelligence.
Speaker A:Specifically for the fuel and convenience retail industry.
Speaker A:I'm Alex.
Speaker B:And I'm Spencer.
Speaker B:Yeah, we're stepping in here between Doug Hawk's regular episodes.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker B:We wanted to do a bit of a deep dive into something pretty fascinating that's popped up.
Speaker A:Something we think will be really relevant for.
Speaker A:Well, everyone listening.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Whether you're in trading, distribution or running retail sites.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:It's all about how AI is moving, moving beyond just basic automation.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like doing the really simple stuff.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And starting to handle tasks that are, you know, much more complex, more nuanced.
Speaker A:And the focus today is this guide you shared about something called New Tide AI.
Speaker A:Agentic Automation.
Speaker A:Sounds interesting.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker B:The core idea really is shifting gears from traditional RPA robotic process automation, which.
Speaker A:Is great for those very like structured rule based things.
Speaker B:Perfect for that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But this moves towards what they're calling Agentic automation.
Speaker A:Agentic automation.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:So our goal today is basically to unpack that, figure out what it could mean for your business and how it might genuinely shake things up operationally.
Speaker A:Okay, good plan.
Speaker A:So maybe we should start with the elephant in the room.
Speaker A:Just the sheer complexity you deal with every day in this sector.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:It's huge.
Speaker B:You're juggling what countless systems, massive amounts of data.
Speaker A:And the processes themselves are just so intricate.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:And that guide, it actually mentions that the average organization uses over 175 different systems.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:175.
Speaker A:That really paints a picture, doesn't it?
Speaker B:It really does.
Speaker B:Just think about the effort involved in keeping all that talking to each other, keeping the data accurate, just making things run smoothly.
Speaker A:It's a constant battle.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker B:And that's exactly where New Tide AI thinks.
Speaker B:Their platform, the Rising Tide Enterprise AI platform.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:That's where it fits in you using this agentic automation idea.
Speaker A:Okay, so agentic automation, it sounds advanced.
Speaker A:Can you break that down a bit more?
Speaker A:What does it actually mean?
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:So Nutide AI describes it as bringing together three key things.
Speaker A:Three things.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:First, intelligent agents.
Speaker B:Things that can actually, you know, think and learn.
Speaker A:That just follow instructions blindly.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Second, really robust data management.
Speaker B:You need a solid handle on all that information.
Speaker A:Makes sense.
Speaker B:And third, a way to orchestrate workflows to kind of coordinate everything.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So intelligent agents, data management and workflow orchestration.
Speaker A:Like a team.
Speaker B:Yeah, like upgrading from just having tools to having a whole coordinated team that can tackle much more complex stuff.
Speaker A:Got It.
Speaker A:So let's meet the team members.
Speaker A:First up, Data Helm.
Speaker A:What's its job?
Speaker B:Right, Data Helm.
Speaker B:Think of that as the.
Speaker B:The foundation for all your data.
Speaker A:Foundation.
Speaker B:You got information pouring in constantly, right?
Speaker B:Emails, invoices, Bols, data from pumps, POS systems.
Speaker A:Everything.
Speaker B:Everything.
Speaker B:Data Helm is designed to take all that raw stuff, pull it into one central place.
Speaker B:They call it a data lake.
Speaker B:Okay, and then this is the important bit.
Speaker B:Transform it.
Speaker B:Make it structured so the AI can actually understand it and work with it.
Speaker A:Ah.
Speaker A:So it cleans it up and organizes it precisely.
Speaker B:Like the guide mentions, how it can automatically grab the key details from, say, a bill of lading attached to an email.
Speaker A:Oh, that's huge.
Speaker A:Think about the time spent manually keying that stuff in.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:So much manual entry, potentially gone.
Speaker A:Okay, so that's Data Helm handling the data prep.
Speaker A:Then there's Agent Harbor.
Speaker A:That sounds like where the brains are.
Speaker B:That's a good way to put it.
Speaker B:Agent harbor is where you actually build, train, and deploy these agentic AI agents.
Speaker A:Agentic AI.
Speaker A:And these aren't just simple bots.
Speaker B:No, definitely not.
Speaker B:These agents have, like, cognitive abilities.
Speaker B:They can learn as they go.
Speaker A:Learn?
Speaker B:Yeah, learn from the data.
Speaker B:They can reason through problems, make decisions on their own.
Speaker B:It's a big step up from just following rigid rules.
Speaker A:So they can adapt if the data looks weird or something changes.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:They can adapt to changing data, changing business needs.
Speaker B:It lets them handle much more complex tasks that, frankly, traditional automation just hits a wall with.
Speaker A:Okay, give me an analogy.
Speaker B:Think of it like traditional automation can follow a recipe perfectly, step by step.
Speaker B:Agentic AI understands why you're making the dish.
Speaker B:So if you're missing an ingredient, it might figure out a substitute or adjust the cooking time.
Speaker B:It gets the goal.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:That clarifies it.
Speaker A:They're actually understanding context.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's a big leap.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker A:And the third piece was shipyard.
Speaker A:What gets orchestrated there?
Speaker B:Shipyard is like the conductor.
Speaker A:Ah, okay.
Speaker B:It manages and coordinates all the different tasks within a workflow.
Speaker B:It figures out the best tool for each step.
Speaker A:So it decides.
Speaker B:Yeah, it decides.
Speaker B:Okay, this bit is simple.
Speaker B:Let's use a standard robot.
Speaker B:This part needs decision making.
Speaker B:Let's give it to an AI agent.
Speaker B:And what about people and this tricky part or this validation step that needs a human eye?
Speaker B:Shipyard routes it accordingly and it connects things together.
Speaker A:You mentioned all those systems earlier.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:That's a huge plus.
Speaker B:It can integrate with, I think the Guy said, Over 300 different services.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:So it can really tie together workflows across the different systems.
Speaker B:You're probably already using helps break down those silos.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Data helm for the data agent.
Speaker A:Harbor for the Intelligent Agents Shipyard.
Speaker A:Conducting the whole orchestra.
Speaker A:That makes sense.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:That's the core platform structure.
Speaker A:Now, you stressed, and the guide seems to stress, that this agentic automation is different from rpa.
Speaker A:Why is that distinction so important for people listening?
Speaker B:It's really important because traditional rpa, you know, it's good, but it has limits.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:For the simple, repetitive stuff.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Tasks with very structured data, clear rules.
Speaker B:But it struggles, really struggles when you throw unstructured data at it.
Speaker A:Like email text or scanned documents.
Speaker B:Precisely.
Speaker B:The kind of messy data that's everywhere in fueling convenience.
Speaker B:Retail emails, attachments that aren't standardized.
Speaker B:RPA finds that tough.
Speaker A:And it can't really make judgment calls.
Speaker B:Not really.
Speaker B:It follows the script.
Speaker B:It struggles when decisions need context, not just rules.
Speaker B:So that bill of leading example again.
Speaker A:Yeah, let's use that.
Speaker B:You get an email, maybe a PDF attached.
Speaker B:The format might vary.
Speaker B:You can.
Speaker B:You need to pull the data, maybe check it against something, then push it into, say, on base for storage and wide angle for the trading side.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Multiple steps, messy data.
Speaker B:Yeah, that whole flow needing interpretation, handling variability, that's generally beyond what basic RPA can reliably do.
Speaker A:Okay, that makes total sense.
Speaker A:So how does the new Tide AI system handle that BOL process then?
Speaker A:Can you walk us through it?
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Let's trace it.
Speaker B:So an email arrives with that BOL attached.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Trigger.
Speaker B:Trigger.
Speaker B:First data helm kicks in.
Speaker B:It uses tech like OCR optical character recognition to read the document.
Speaker A:Reads the PDF or image.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:And nlp natural language processing to understand what the text actually means.
Speaker B:It extracts the data, stores the raw file too.
Speaker A:Got it.
Speaker A:Data extracted then.
Speaker B:Then an AI agent from Agent harbor takes that data, it analyzes it.
Speaker B:Maybe needs to check the supplier's credit status in another system.
Speaker B:Or verify quantity quantities against a po.
Speaker A:So it's doing some cross referencing, Some thinking.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Then often there's a human check.
Speaker B:This is important.
Speaker A:Human in the loop, Right?
Speaker B:Someone quickly reviews it.
Speaker B:Is it compliant?
Speaker B:Does it look right?
Speaker B:They approve it or flag an issue.
Speaker A:Okay, human verification.
Speaker A:Then what?
Speaker B:Once approved, Shipyard takes over.
Speaker B:It formats the verified data perfectly for the downstream systems, creates the right file for Onbase, sends the necessary info to right angle.
Speaker A:Ah, so it handles the integration pieces precisely.
Speaker B:And then maybe another AI agent in Agent harbor drafts a confirmation email back to the sender.
Speaker B:Maybe using more natural language than a simple process notification.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:That really does sound like an end to end workflow.
Speaker A:Much more than just data entry.
Speaker B:It is, it's automating the whole process, including some of the decision points.
Speaker A:So let's bring this home for our listeners.
Speaker A:What are the real tangible benefits for someone in fuel and convenience retail from this, this agentic automation?
Speaker B:Well, there are quite a few actually.
Speaker B:First, pretty obviously operational efficiency, faster processing, much faster processing for complex things like that BOL Workflow, Less manual work, less time spent.
Speaker B:That's huge in this fast moving industry.
Speaker A:Definitely.
Speaker A:What else?
Speaker B:Accuracy and consistency.
Speaker B:Big time.
Speaker B:Reducing manual keying just cuts down errors dramatically.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Think fewer mistakes in transaction data, inventory.
Speaker A:Logistics, which saves money and hassle down the line.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Then there's scalability, handling dizzy periods, onboarding new suppliers faster, integrating new systems more easily.
Speaker B:So it helps you adapt, helps you adapt to fluctuations.
Speaker B:And all this rolls up into cost savings.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Low operational costs.
Speaker B:And one more that's maybe less obvious but really important.
Speaker B:Workforce empowerment.
Speaker A:How so?
Speaker B:By taking away those really tedious repetitive data tasks, you free up your people, they can focus on more valuable stuff.
Speaker B:Customer service analysis, strategy, exception handling, things that require human skills.
Speaker A:So it's not just about cutting jobs, it's about making the existing jobs better, more strategic.
Speaker B:That's the idea, yes.
Speaker B:Making them more impactful.
Speaker A:The guide also mentioned something called controlled agency.
Speaker A:What's that about?
Speaker A:It sounds a bit like keeping the AI on a leash, huh?
Speaker B:Yeah, kind of.
Speaker B:It's actually a really important concept for New Tide AI.
Speaker B:It's about finding the right balance.
Speaker A:Balance between What?
Speaker B:Between the AI's autonomy, its ability to work independently, and the need for human oversight and control.
Speaker B:That human in the loop step we talked about in the BOL process, that's a perfect example of controlled agency.
Speaker B:The AI does the heavy lifting, but a human validates critical points.
Speaker A:So you maintain control, ensure accuracy.
Speaker A:Especially where regulations are tight.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:It builds trust.
Speaker B:You're not just letting a black box run wild with critical business processes.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And they also mention the low code environment in Agent Harbor.
Speaker B:That helps too.
Speaker B:It makes it easier for businesses themselves to understand, manage, maybe even tweet the agents without needing deep programming skills.
Speaker A:So it's more accessible, less intimidating, supposedly.
Speaker B:Yeah, more control, easier adoption.
Speaker A:Okay, that human oversight is definitely reassuring.
Speaker A:Now, people always have concerns with new automation tech.
Speaker A:Does the guide mention how New Tide AI addresses some common ones?
Speaker A:Like what about my existing RPA or data security?
Speaker B:Yeah, it touches on a few key points.
Speaker B:They're clear that, you know, traditional RPA isn't going away.
Speaker B:It still has its place for those really simple structured tasks.
Speaker A:So this complements it doesn't just replace it.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It complements it for the more complex stuff.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Then on agent reliability, they point to shipyard orchestrating things and that human in the loop aspect as safeguards.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Built in checks, data security, obviously huge.
Speaker B:They talk about the security measures within data helm, encryption, access controls, the usual best practices standard, but essential, essential scalability, they say the platforms built to grow with your business and those system silos we mentioned, Shipyard's integration power is positioned as the way to bridge those gaps.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So they seem to have thought through some of those practical worries, it seems.
Speaker B:So they're trying to position it as a robust enterprise ready solution.
Speaker A:So wrapping this up then, it really feels like this shift towards agentic automation, it's not just a small step, is it?
Speaker A:It feels more like a fundamental change in how can manage these really complex processes in our industry.
Speaker B:I think that's fair to say.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a fundamental shift.
Speaker B:The potential for boosting efficiency, improving accuracy and yeah, ultimately strengthening the bottom line seems pretty significant.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:This look at New Tide AI's approach, it definitely gives us a peek into a future where AI agents aren't just, you know, ticking boxes.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:They're actively navigating and optimizing these really intricate workflows.
Speaker A:Hopefully this has sparked some thoughts for you listening ideas about how maybe these kinds of technologies could fit into your own operations.
Speaker B:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker B:Food for thought.
Speaker B:What process, you know, what specific bottleneck in your business do you think can most benefit from this kind of intelligent automation?
Speaker A:Hmm, that's the question to ponder, isn't it?
Speaker A:Especially as AI keeps evolving and offering these new tools for the fuel and convenience retail world.
Speaker B:Indeed.
Speaker B:Well, thanks for joining us for this special edition of Fueling AI.
Speaker A:Thanks everyone.
