> Markdown version of [/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1928-the-missing](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1928-the-missing). Every page supports `.md` or `Accept: text/markdown`. Links point to the HTML versions so they work for humans too. Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md).

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# The Missing Infrastructure for AI Agents


- **Date:** Thursday, Sep 24, 2026
- **Time:** 11:00–11:30 (30 min)
- **Room:** Stage 5
- **Event:** World Congress 2026 North America

## Description

Everyone can build an AI agent. Almost nobody knows how to run thousands of them safely in production.

Over the past two years, we've watched AI agents evolve from demos into software that writes code, answers customers, automates workflows, and makes decisions. The challenge has shifted from building smarter agents to operating them reliably at scale.

Having spent time at Meta and Google and now helping lead Guild.ai, CTO and co-founder Chris Waterson has seen firsthand where production systems fail. It's rarely the model. It's the surrounding infrastructure: context management, permissions, observability, cost controls, versioning, evaluation, and governance.

This session explores what changes when AI agents become real production systems instead of prototypes. He'll draw on lessons from building Guild Software Factory, a system of specialized agents that plans, implements, reviews, and maintains work across a codebase, and Guild Optimizer, which automatically tests cheaper agent configurations against production history to cut costs without sacrificing quality.

Attendees will leave with practical frameworks for designing AI agent systems that are observable, secure, reusable, and capable of evolving over time, not just impressive during a demo.

Whether you're building your first agent or managing hundreds across an organization, this talk offers lessons from operating AI where reliability matters.

## Speaker

### [Chris Waterson](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@james-everingham)

 CTO and Co-Founder of Guild.ai


## Related talks at this congress

- [Closing the Visibility Gap: Lessons from Safety Critical Agentic Systems](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1408-closing-the) — Vivek Pandit
- [I Don't Trust AI Agents (And Neither Should You): Building Production-Ready Architectures](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1772-i-don-t-trust-ai) — Darko Mesaros
- [When Agents Became Users: Rearchitecting Identity and Permissions for AI at Scale](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1713-when-agents-became) — Yoav Gal
- [Securing AI Agent Infrastructure: Identity, Attestation, and Trust at Scale](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1432-securing-ai-agent) — Abdel Fane

## Watch remotely

Can’t make it to San José? Watch this session live with Pro. You also get:

- All full videos, bookmarks, and playlists
- World Congress livestreams

[See pricing](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/pricing)

## Links

- [Get tickets](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/world-congress-north-america/tickets)