Kantata launches Agent Studio for professional services

Kantata has launched Agent Studio for professional services firms, and Basware is already using it.

Agent Studio is a feature within Kantata's Expertise Engine that lets users create custom AI agents by describing tasks in plain language. It is designed to turn delivery standards into governed agents that can be used across projects, teams and clients.

The launch comes as companies face growing concerns about the spread of AI agents inside large organisations. Gartner has forecast that the average Fortune 500 enterprise will be running more than 150,000 AI agents by 2028, up from 15 today, raising questions about oversight, data handling and unsanctioned behaviour.

Single agent

Kantata is positioning the product as an alternative to deploying large numbers of separate task-specific agents. Instead, it centres on what it calls a "superagent" with access to platform-wide context, including data, the relationships between that data and details of how work is carried out.

Users can describe the work they want an agent to handle through a conversational interface, and the system then builds and refines the agent through dialogue. Each build and edit is validated before publication to check that inputs and outputs are structured correctly.

Once published, the agent can be triggered manually or through an automated workflow using a single command. The model is intended to let practice leads, delivery directors and PMO owners create agents around their own operating standards without involving developers or AI specialists.

Kantata argues that this approach addresses a practical problem for professional services businesses, where recurring work often depends on established formats, escalation rules, expected levels of detail and fixed outputs. Rather than requiring teams to restate those requirements repeatedly, the product captures them once and applies them consistently.

Basware, which provides invoice lifecycle management software, is among the early users of the technology. Its deployment reflects a wider effort by professional services teams to shift staff time away from administration and towards client-facing work.

"I want our professional services team spending time with customers - not doing documentation, figuring out resourcing and entering their billable time," said Mark Johnston, Chief Customer Officer, Basware. "With Kantata, we can create AI agents to do this work in the context of our business and processes and focus our people on delivering expertise that moves the needle for our customers in a scalable way."

Expertise focus

Agent Studio extends Kantata's Expertise Agent, which launched in June. The company's broader argument is that AI tools in professional services should reflect the judgement and working methods of senior practitioners, rather than simply automate isolated processes.

"When it comes to professional services, AI isn't the differentiator - expertise is. AI is just what lets firms unlock, scale and defend it," said Michael Speranza, Chief Executive Officer, Kantata. "Any vendor can give a firm a tool to build AI agents. But if all you're doing is automating processes, you're just racing to the bottom and simply reducing costs, rather than developing differentiation. Agent Studio is designed to help firms compound their expertise in a simple, repeatable way and use it to transform the way they operate."

The pitch comes amid a broader debate about how businesses should use AI in operational settings where consistency matters as much as efficiency. In professional services, outputs are often client-facing and subject to review, which places more emphasis on repeatability than on experimentation.

By embedding standards into a governed agent, firms can reduce the need for staff to draft prompts, correct AI-generated work and reformat outputs, according to Kantata. The company argues that this cuts the hidden time cost that can arise when teams repeatedly explain context to separate tools.

"An agent that improvises is a liability in a business where the same deliverable has to hold up in front of a client every time," said Vikas Nehru, Chief Technology Officer, Kantata. "By letting firms capture their standards once and execute them through a single governed agent, we make consistency a property of the platform rather than a matter of who happened to be staffed. That is a very different promise than adding another agent to the pile."

Agent Studio is available now and already in use by customers.