The technology to build autonomous network operations is no longer the bottleneck. AI agents can detect anomalies, diagnose root causes, and execute remediation faster than human engineers. The missing layer is governance: the guardrails, accountability frameworks, and operational controls that determine whether autonomous agents reduce risk or multiply it.

This talk examines three governance gaps that must be closed before agentic operations can be safely deployed at scale.

First, the trust model void: vendors are shipping autonomous agents without the rollback frameworks or accountability structures that operators need.

Second, the governance vacuum: autonomous agents require explicit boundaries—what actions are permitted, what requires human approval, what is off-limits—and most organizations have not assigned ownership of these policies.

Third, the speed paradox: the same streaming architecture that enables real-time context also enables real-time errors, making governance mechanisms such as action intent events, idempotency keys, and lightweight leases essential architectural components embedded in the event stream itself.

Attendees will leave with a practical governance framework—define boundaries, embed enforcement, instrument accountability, assign ownership—that they can apply immediately to their own agent deployments.