Agentic AI, Multi-Source Fusion, and the Hidden Strain on Analytical Infrastructure

At AFCEA TechNet 2026, Tony Ibanez, Senior Solutions Architect at Ocient National Security Solutions, explores one of the biggest challenges emerging in the age of agentic AI: the hidden strain autonomous agents place on analytics infrastructure. As organizations move from human-paced analytics to machine-paced decision making, a single natural language question can trigger dozens of backend queries. Tony explains how AI agents decompose problems, pursue multiple hypotheses in parallel, and dramatically amplify workload demands across data platforms. In this session, you'll learn: • Why agentic AI changes traditional analytics workflows • How one question can become 40 or more backend queries • The infrastructure challenges created by workload amplification • Why semantic layers and data governance alone are not enough • The hidden cost of fragmented analytics stacks • Best practices for building mission-ready analytics platforms for an agentic future • How OcientAIQ™ is designed to support large-scale, multi-modal analytics and AI workloads Whether you're supporting national security missions, enterprise analytics, or AI-driven decision making, this presentation provides practical insights into the infrastructure considerations that will shape the next generation of data platforms.